The Importance of Getting the Project Scope Right

The Project Scope
The project scope is a core part of project planning, and it is the base to achieve the overall project’s success by determining and documenting a list of specific project goals, deliverables, tasks, costs and deadlines. It explains the boundaries of the project, establishes responsibilities for each team member and sets up procedures for how completed work will be verified and approved. 

The project scope is used as a guide, throughout the project duration and it helps to keep the focus of the stakeholders on specified goals, therefore, avoiding potential timeline troubles. The formal scope ensures that the end users’ expectations will be met when the project comes to a close. The formal scope also helps stakeholders to avoid any misunderstandings, for example, senior-level leaders may assume certain activities are to be included in a project, and another team involved does not expect these activities to take place. An effective project scope brings together expectations, capabilities, resources, and timing to establish what each initiative will accomplish throughout the project, as well as what it won’t. 

Many companies have encountered difficulties defining the scope of a project with the right level of detail. The activities of resource planning and the estimation of task duration are core components in the scope development process. For this to be defined accurately, an experienced management team is crucial. 

A practical project scope closely aligns with the initiative’s timeline. An understanding of everything the project is expected to deliver is needed as insight into the dependencies and estimated durations for all tasks. By maintaining awareness of the schedule, the project manager can ensure that the team is not committing to more than it can realistically deliver in any given time period. 

Consideration of external factors that have the potential to impact the project is essential in order to produce a precise project scope. Where input or approval from a local authority is needed, the duration of the application process must be included in the scope. In addition, the project manager may analyse the feasibility of the required activity as well as the compliance with the local guidelines. 

Furthermore, the scope of the project must be shared with the stakeholders so that the client, other consultants involved, and end users will know what the project will accomplish upfront. The project manager can either start on the right foot in meeting their expectations or can renegotiate the scope early in the process if there are still things that should be added or expanded. 

The ORS Project Management Team has experience and expertise in producing an accurate project scope for clients while taking all mentioned factors into consideration. ORS considers the objectives of the project and advise a project scope which provides a valuable basis for good decision-making throughout the project’s lifecycle, leading to a stronger end result for clients.

If you have a project that could benefit from a professional team of project managers to take over a project from inception through to handover, please contact ORS today, we would be delighted to work with you.