How to correctly determine the scope of a project?

When managing a project, it is advisable to avoid making it too long or too short. Ideally, it should have the right size - large enough to encompass all project deliverables, yet small enough to achieve the set objectives.

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However, to make this possible, you need to determine the scope of a project. This helps ensure that project deliverables are met within the defined timeframe, budget, and scope. Otherwise, there is a risk of defining an unrealistic scope, resulting in the project budget being exhausted before completing an overly ambitious scope, or delivering a defective product in order to meet the scope and timeline.

To reduce the chances of project failure due to poorly defined scope, this article explores how to properly define project scope and highlights the importance of planning it from the beginning as one of the key mistakes.

What is project scope?

Project scope allows setting boundaries and precisely defining the goals, timelines, and deliverables of the project. When project scope is properly defined, achieving goals and objectives without delays or excessive workload is ensured.

Determining project scope is not a task for a single person. In fact, all project team members should align to ensure they are working towards the same objective.

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How to determine project scope?

To determine this crucial parameter that largely determines project success or failure, it is necessary to establish scope boundaries. By doing so, you can create a plan based on those boundaries, acquire resources within those limits, and organize tasks accordingly. Here are a series of actions to help define scope more precisely.

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1. Set realistic objectives for your project.

Before defining the project scope, start by establishing the project objectives, which are the assets to be delivered at the project's end. While determining project scope contributes to achieving objectives, it is essential to first know what those objectives are.

2. Plan the necessary resources.

Once you have clearly defined project objectives, you need to determine the resources required for execution. Resources include budget, human capital, working hours, technological tools, etc. A resource management plan defines the amount of resources available for the project and how they will be utilized.

Planning resource management helps delimit the project scope. By understanding the resource availability for project execution, you can include this important information when drafting the project scope statement.

3. Consider external variables in the project.

To leave nothing to chance, focus on everything that could directly or indirectly affect the project scope. Ensure that external variables that may alter the course of actions (such as a pandemic, inflation, devaluation, etc.) are identified during the scope definition. Addressing these variables in the early stages will prevent unexpected contingencies when defining the scope.

4. Obtain approval and acceptance from project stakeholders.

Another step not to be excluded from the scope definition process is obtaining approval and acceptance from all project stakeholders. This allows you to make final adjustments in collaboration with your team before project execution. At this stage, there may be aspects that do not contribute much value or hinder project progress, and it will be necessary to eliminate them. Likewise, certain activities may gain more significance, requiring prioritization, such as those influencing profitability.

5. Establish a change control process.

A change control process is a defined set of processes that participants must follow before change approval. By implementing a method for change control, your team can submit change requests for stakeholders' approval based on their importance.

If the project involves many participants, implementing change control is a wise decision to track potential changes that may be introduced before project execution. It is not advisable to have an inflexible project that cannot be modified, nor is it recommended to have a project that is too susceptible to changes, as it could corrupt the scope.

6. Develop a project scope statement and share it with the rest of the team.

The project scope statement involves integrating all the elements collected during the research into a single document. It is a document that details what will be done and what will not be done in the project, along with the rationale behind each action or decision. To define the scope, you can formulate some of these questions with your team:

• Why execute this project?
• What are the goals and final deliverables?
• What are the limitations or constraints of the project?
• What is the available budget?
• How many team members are participating in the project?
• What is the estimated deadline for delivery?
• What elements would be out of the project scope?

7. Refer to the project scope statement during project execution.

Once the project scope statement is finalized with defined objectives and all the previous questions answered in the document, a crucial step is to track this statement to ensure uninterrupted project execution and avoid scope deviations.

If any stakeholders wish to introduce a change to the project without going through the change control process, they can suggest the change by reviewing the scope statement through a request or routine follow-up.

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In conclusion, to determine the scope of a project, you need to consider several key aspects: defining clear objectives, planning resource management, considering potential external variables, obtaining stakeholder approval, enabling change control, and documenting each of these elements in a scope statement. The scope statement should be periodically consulted to ensure that the project progresses in alignment with the defined scope.