A project scope example describes how much work is needed to do a certain project. The document also states the objectives and output of a certain project. It must include the key deliverables and how you propose to accomplish them with a set of milestones.
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Project Scope Examples
What is a project scope statement?
The planning of a project usually involves the creation of a project scope example, which you use to determine and document a list of deliverables, tasks, goals, deadlines, and costs.
Documenting a project’s scope explains its limits, establishes the responsibilities for each of the team members, and sets up processes for how you can verify and approve completed work.
In the course of your project, such documentation can help your team stay focused on the tasks while providing you with guidelines for decision-making when it comes to any requested changes during. This document differs from your project’s charter as the latter simply documents the existence of your project.
Project Scope Templates
What to include in your project scope example?
Here is some information you need to know about a project scope:
- Aside from defining what work you need to do and the parameters of the work, this document also defines what is out and what is in your project.
- You can usually find this document within a Statement of Work (SoW), although it can also exist separately to provide details for an estimate.
- You can also use this document to describe individual elements in an SoW.
When making your own project scope example, include the following information:
- Overview: this includes information like what your project is, the reason for its occurrence, and what you plan to achieve with it.
- Governance: this is the person who has approval.
- Approach, Phases, and Tasks: how you plan to complete the project.
- Deliverables: what you will produce through the project.
- Timeline and Milestones: when you will deliver important deliverables until you have completed the project.
- Estimate and Payment Schedule: what the project will cost.
- Assumptions: what’s and what isn’t in your project.
The importance of this document
To effectively manage your project scope, you need good communication as this ensures that each member of your team will understand the extent of your project and how to meet the objectives and goals of your project.
You should solicit sign-offs and approvals from various stakeholders while making your project scope example and during the course of your project. This ensures that the finished project you have proposed meets everybody’s needs. Here are the benefits that a project scope will provide to your company:
- To articulate what your project entails to help all of the stakeholders understand what’s involved.
- To provide a roadmap to schedule work, budget appropriately, and assign tasks.
- To help focus your team members on certain objectives.
- To prevent projects, especially complex ones, from going beyond your established vision.
Establishing a project scope ensures that your project remains focused and gets executed according to expectations. Having a scope provides you with a solid foundation in the management of your project as it progresses. It also helps make sure that resources won’t get wasted or diverted on elements that aren’t within the scope.
Scope Statement Templates
How do you write a project scope?
Writing a project scope example doesn’t have to be a complex process. To make it easier, you can use project scope statement templates. Then all you have to do is to follow these steps to come up with an effective document:
- Gather all of the information you need
In almost all cases when starting a project, the first thing to do is to gather information. The requirements of your project can come from various sources and places.
These may include your team, project sponsors, and stakeholders. Other requirements you will create from research, experience, and templates using other projects as your resource. The information to include in your scope definition examples are:
Project deliverables
Project constraints
Available resources
Exclusions and inclusions - Create the schedule for your project
After you have collected all of the information you require, you can now make a layout on how your project will move towards achieving your goals and deadlines. Start with the list of deliverables, and include the major milestones and tasks.
These are details that you write down underneath your deliverables. They are the most important team tasks, not the individual tasks that lead to the completion of the deliverables.
When determining how long each of the major tasks should take, always take into consideration the quality of your work. Don’t just schedule tasks until you have completed them, but rather schedule to accomplish with the kind of quality you have promised in your scope. - Tailor your project scope to your organization
All stakeholders, teams, organizations, and projects differ from one another and as such, there might be details that you want to include in the project scope that you haven’t covered yet.
For instance, you might want to consider how the scope can reflect the methodologies of your company. You may find that stating your project’s purpose can be very helpful. There is also the possibility that your stakeholders have certain acceptance criteria that you need to meet before you can successfully complete your project. - Compile documentation and review
Now that you have done all of the preliminary work, it’s time to create your project scope statement. Always remember that this document must be both easy to read and concise. While you might feel tempted to come up with an all-inclusive scope, this could be best saved for your project plan.
A good document doesn’t have to contain every possible piece of information you can find. As a general rule of thumb, you should limit the scope to only 1 to 2 paragraphs. - Put the document to work
The document you will create serves as the basic agreement with your stakeholders and the foundation for other important documents, including your work breakdown structure, project plan, budget, communication plan, and so on.
You will use this document as your reference throughout the course of your project as it will serve as a guide in making any changes and decisions. This makes it a valuable tool for standing firm when team members would like to make any changes that require additional money or time that you don’t have.
