Scope Statement

Purpose

The scope statement may be embedded in a variety of other documents, including the project requirements document, the project charter, and the project proposal. It provides a single-statement, single-paragraph, or single-page overview of the project and its boundaries. It describes the project in clear objective terms, highlighting the outcomes and any deliverables associated with the effort. If there is a significant probability of misunderstanding, the scope statement is used to refine what is not included as part of the project, as well.

Application

The scope statement may be an integral component of a variety of documents, including (but not limited to) the business case, the business justification, customer requirements, feasibility analysis, project charter, project proposal, and project request. It is used to convey a consistent vision of the project and its outcomes and to clarify project intent. In discussions about a project’s goals and objectives and what should or should not be included, the scope statement often affords the defining word.

Content

The scope statement is comprised of a clear description of the project, its outcomes, and approach:

The project will create a new nondestructive testing methodology to validate the integrity of all on-site groove welds. The new approach may involve radiography or other technologies as appropriate, not exceeding an average cost per inspection of $3/weld. The approach will be tested and implemented no later than January 1,

This brief statement captures the nature of the work to be performed and of the work not to be performed. Expensive testing methodologies will be deemed unacceptable, but some technologies are acceptable (radiography), if they can be made appropriate in the context of the project expense. The project is for an on-site, rather than a remote, testing tool.

It could have also included the cost and budget, but some organizations do not incorporate that information because they see the scope statement as reflecting only the requirements side of the triple constraint of project management (time, cost, requirements).

Approaches

Some scope statements will be considerably longer than others, depending on the nature of the project and the level(s) of complexity involved. The concern is that long scope statements may evolve into rudimentary requirements documents, which is generally beyond their purview. The scope statement can be used as a common frame of reference across the multiple documents that incorporate it (as described in the Application section).

A scope statement normally does not include a specific reference to the resources to be applied, unless they are considered a component of the actual deliverable. Identifying that 10 team members will be required to accomplish the work is not normally included in a scope statement. If the project deliverable is to include a project deliverable “authored/created/supported by John Doe,” then John Doe may be identified as a resource within the scope statement, since he is actually a part of the deliverable itself.

Considerations

The scope statement is often a highly politically charged document. Because it serves as the overarching vision for the project and provides direction for many of the other components, different constituencies may attempt to influence its development. In the ideal, these constituencies will make themselves known early in the project, so the scope statement may remain fairly static for the life of the project. While some minor modifications may be made, because of its general nature, there should not be any dramatic shifts in the verbiage within the scope statement during the life of the project.