Project management is rarely easy. You have to balance competing demands for time, money, and resources. You have deliverables to complete and deadlines to meet. But, projects tend to evolve over time. Sometimes you even wonder if you’re still working on the same project that you started!

Project scope management helps to keep projects on track. You can stay focused on the project’s objectives while maintaining timely and accurate records of the project’s progress. Let’s see how to avoid unwanted and destructive project scope creep.

Project scope management definition

What is project scope? Think of scope as the boundaries of the project. Defining the boundaries of your project creates necessary limits. Without those limits the project would be directionless. Unclear objectives and unrealistic allocation of resources and budget will not lead to success. The scope’s limits include:

• the aims of the project,
• the staged deliverables and when they should be achieved,
• resources and capacity that are available to work on the project,
• which stakeholders need to be involved throughout the project, and
• the budget.

What is project scope management? In the project planning stage, you establish the scope of the project. Don’t overreach. Make sure the project is achievable and realistic! Then, you continue to manage the project within those established boundaries. Don’t think you have to do this alone. You’ll need to collaborate and communicate with all stakeholders. This makes sure there is a shared understanding of the project scope – you’re all on the same page and understand what’s in and not in the scope.

What is a project scope statement?

The project scope statement is like a definition or summary of the project. It captures your client’s expectations. But, it also lays out the project’s requirements. 

The scope statement is more than defining objectives, time, and budget. It also includes an outline of the method of working and record-keeping – so it defines the procedures your team will use. For example, it might establish that your project will be managed in a cloud-based solution such as Weekwise.

It also determines guidelines for the project team members. What is expected of the team? What responsibilities does each team member have? What degree of autonomy do they have for decision-making? 

The scope statement should also define success criteria and how the deliverables will be validated. 

Sometimes your scope statement is a section of the bigger project plan. Sometimes it’s a standalone document. There’s no right or wrong for that – whatever suits the context. Don’t confuse the scope statement with a statement of work. The statement of work would be a formalized agreement between your company and the client. But, to be efficient you can use the scope statement as the basis for the statement of work.

What is scope creep? 

Scope creep is your big danger. This is when your project takes on a life of its own! Are you managing the project, or is the project managing you? You’ve set clear boundaries in the scope statement, so new tasks or objectives that emerge later are the creep. The project starts to expand beyond the original plan. This has negative effects on budget, time, and resources. And, it may distract attention away from the real objectives of the project.

Imagine the project scope defines objectives and deliverables leading to an app. The expectations of the app’s functions are defined in the scope. Part-way through the project, the client wants to add several new functions, meaning a large amount of new work for the team. Developing these new features might be tempting, but is there a budget for them? Do you have the right resources for them? Do your resources have the capacity available? Is there an assumption that the project team will just get on with it? 

The main problem with project creep is that it happens quietly. It sneaks up on you in small doses. It sometimes comes with a smile: rather informally and in the good nature of aiming to achieve. And, before you know it the project has expanded way beyond the original intent. Mindfully managing your project scope can help prevent creep. 

We’re not saying you can never change the project – of course you can, especially with adaptive and agile approaches. But, there should be an agreed procedure for change requests.

Why project scope management is important

Project scope management gives you many advantages. Having the scope statement is just the start. You then have to actively manage the scope to delight your clients and achieve the project objectives in the smoothest way possible. It gives you many benefits: :

• Establishes and later ensures clarity and limits/boundaries between business partners.
• Gets buy-in from stakeholders because the project is clearly defined.
• Creates the basis for budgeting, resource planning and allocation, and timings for deliverables.
• Supports the project team – understanding and agreement of how to work, what to work on, and what authority team members have.
• Supports the project manager by giving them the tool to guide the project – it’s the playbook!
• Clients understand change request procedures, i.e. limits project creep.

How to define project scope management? Steps & Tips

Follow these seven steps and you’ll be on your way to successfully managing project scope. But, these steps are not 100% linear. You may need to plan some in tandem, or refer back to previous steps and make alterations. Remember – be reasonably flexible, not rigid. 

1. Define project objectives. Without clearly defined and agreed objectives, the project will be directionless and inefficient.

2. Define and plan resources and timeline. You may have a good idea of your fleshware resource availability from your resource capacity planning and project pipeline work. This step also determines expenditure, so think of this as your budgeting stage, too.

3. Define what is out of scope. It can help to identify areas that are clearly out of scope. You may not think of everything, but if you can capture some this will help the project stay focused.

4. Create the change request procedure. Without this, you risk creep, which can seriously damage your project’s chance at success. Formalizing changes protects you, your team and your client’s expectations.

5. Write project scope statement draft. Combine the info and insights into the first draft of your scope statement. Lay out clearly the context, objectives, the budget, the timeline of deliverables, the resources, how to conduct communications with clients, guidelines for the project team, change request procedures, how to validate achievement, and what’s out of scope. Depending on your company culture and client expectations, statements may be short or long, bullet points or prose. Know the context you’re working in.

6. Get stakeholder agreement. Share the draft with stakeholders, including clients. Discuss, disagree, re-draft, and agree. You put the project at risk if you move into implementation before agreement and approval on the scope.

7. Share the agreed scope statement with everybody on the team. It’s the playbook, so they need to know how the project will be conducted. Your team needs to know.

8. Use it! Making a scope statement is not the main goal. It’s the backbone that your project will live on. It’s not a fossilized piece of writing, but a real tool to use and push your project forward effectively. So, make sure you use it throughout project implementation. 

Final tips

A sleek up-to-date project management tool like Weekwise lets you get control of your project’s scope. Weekwise is easy to use. It’s very low touch – clicks, drags, and a bit of typing. It eloquently tracks your resources accurately and punctually. You can plan as far or as little ahead as you want. Various views let you see the project develop in overview or zoom in on more specifics. Graphs and charts let you see how your project is progressing. E.g. do you have room for change requests or are you in danger of creep?