Word of the Day: project scope

Word of the Day Daily updates on the latest technology terms |March 23, 2018

project scope Project scope is the part of project planning that involves determining and documenting a list of specific project goals, deliverables, tasks, costs and deadlines. A project's scope statement should not be confused with its charter; a project's charter simply documents that the project exists. It is natural for parts of a large project to change along the way, so the better the project has been "scoped" at the beginning, the better the project team will be able to manage change.  The documentation of a project's scope, which is called a scope statement, terms of reference or statement of work, 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. During the project, this documentation helps the project team remain focused and on task. The scope statement also provides the project team with guidelines for making decisions about change requests during the project.   When documenting a project's scope, stakeholders should be as specific as possible in order to avoid scope creep, a situation in which one or more parts of a project ends up requiring more work, time or effort because of poor planning or miscommunication. Effective scope management requires good communication to ensure that everyone on the team understands the scope of the project and agrees upon exactly how the project's goals will be met. As part of project scope management, the team leader should solicit approvals and sign-offs from the various stakeholders as the project proceeds, ensuring that the finished project, as proposed, meets everyone's needs. Read more... Quote of the Day "Don't pitch that a project will wrap up within an unrealistic timescale because you think that's the proposal the business wants to hear. Eschew any major changes to the original project scope that could derail time and resource allotments -- allow minor changes." - Clive Longbottom   Trending Terms feature creep statement of work change management work breakdown structure project management gold plating boil the ocean   Learning Center Mobile projects: Here's how to get them right the first time Mobile projects are some of today's toughest assignments. Expert Jennifer Lent explained what developers need to do differently. Error budget instills reckless IT project management mindset If an organization doesn't quantify its IT risks, the allowable error budget could make some admins too cautious and others too reckless. Nail an IT project proposal Writing an IT project proposal shouldn't be a technological exposé. Keep the focus on business benefit, cost and ROI to sway execs. Avoid implementation failure with an effective change management plan Implementing new enterprise technology or processes requires a comprehensive change management plan. Here's how to create one. How can a work breakdown structure help me with requirements? A work breakdown structure is a way to make large efforts -- like requirements gathering -- more manageable. Expert Robin Goldsmith outlines the options. Writing for Business The following document section __________ the scope of the project. a. will explain b. explains Answer   Stay In Touch For feedback about any of our definitions or to suggest a new definition, please contact me at: mrouse@techtarget.com   Visit the Word of the Day Archives and catch up on what you've missed!   FOLLOW US About This E-Newsletter This e-newsletter is published by the TechTarget network. To unsubscribe from Whatis.com, click here. Please note, this will not affect any other subscriptions you have signed up for. TechTarget, Whatis, 275 Grove Street, Newton, MA 02466. Contact: webmaster@techtarget.com Copyright 2018 TechTarget. All rights reserved.