A User's Manual to the PMBOK Guide, Fifth Edition

Chapter 5

Planning Scope

TOPICS COVERED

Project Scope Management

Plan Scope Management

Collect Requirements

Define Scope

Create WBS

Project Scope Management

Project Scope Management includes the processes required to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully.

There are two types of scope: product scope and project scope.

Product Scope. The features and functions that characterize a product, service, or result.

Project Scope. The work performed to deliver a product, service, or result with the specified features and functions.

For example, if your project is to develop a project management training curriculum for your organization, the product scope would be the actual course content. The project scope would include all project management documents such as the schedule, budget, and resource pool, as well as editing the work, doing a trial run of the course, and so forth. The project scope makes it possible to deliver the product scope, but it is not the actual end product.

Everything starts with scope. Once the scope is understood, via the requirements, scope statement, and work breakdown structure (WBS), you can start to define activities and resources, cost estimates, risks, procurement needs, and the like. When scope changes, usually one or more project processes will undergo a change or update ...