Development Cooperation Handbook/Designing and Executing Projects/Project Scope

The 9 Topic Areas Of Project Management Knowledge

Scope is one of the 9 topic areas of project management knowledge. Technical definition "scope": the combination of all project goals and tasks, and the work required to accomplish them; the scope translates into the timeline and budget. The project scope states what will and will not be included as part of the project. Scope provides a common understanding of the project for all stakeholders by defining the project's overall boundaries. It establishes the boundaries of what the project will and will not accomplish. The scope statement eliminates any confusion or ambiguity that might still exist after considering the project's goal, objectives and high-level deliverable statements.

Task of the Project Scope Management is "to ensure, that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully". In other words: The project Scope Management shall warrant that all of the required targets will be met and nothing more! A project target may be described indirectly as a feature of a result (product), but the intrinsic scope of the project itself is the work that must be done to create the product (comp. PMBOK3, p. 103).