Easy Steps to Write a Project Scope Statement
Adriana Girdler, CET, PMP
Helping project managers and accidental PMs successfully achieve project goals with an efficient, practical, non-chaotic system | Award-winning Project Manager | Workout & Guitar Enthusiast
A step-by-step guide for people who don’t know where to start
Do you need to create a project scope statement but get stuck on where to start, or don’t know if you have everything you need? A project scope statement is key to a successful project plan, so here are a few simple steps to take if you want to create an effective project scope statement.
The Scope Statement Secret
Before you get started, there’s something you really need to know about your scope statement: It is the most critical aspect of your project.
The reason for this is that it helps you know exactly what you’re going to be doing. In a perfect world, the sponsor would have given you the scope statement when they gave you the project. However, in reality, this rarely happens.
So, as a project manager, you need to ensure that you create an amazing scope statement yourself.
Section 1 – Project Information
The first section of your scope statement is going to be about project information. In this section, you start off with the project name and project justification or background information.
You’re essentially asking and answering the question, “Why are we doing this project?
Section 2 – Scope Statement and Focus
The next section is about your focus, and this is the heart of your scope statement.
The question you’re trying to answer here is, what are you trying to do? What are you delivering? And what’s in and out of focus?
Some people don’t think this part is important, but in reality, it is very important because your scope statement is a generalized statement that needs to be SMART - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. And this is the part that will highlight that.
Sections 3 and 4 – Supporting Details and Key People
The next parts are about the supporting details and key people in your project. I really want to break this down for you in a detailed way, so I’ve created a video that goes through each of these scope statement steps with specific examples that will help you understand how to put each step into practice.
If you want to finish learning what you need to know about creating a project scope statement, then head over to YouTube with me and we’ll go into more detail there!
I really hope that you found this helpful – and if you did, it would mean so much to me if you would share it on your social media.
Every manager has to take on projects, so a great place to start as a new manager is learning some project management skills. If you're a new manager, do consider taking my SLAY Project Management online course where I show you step-by-step how to successfully manage a project, plus you get access to every template you will need, along with detailed video instructions on how to fill them out.
-Adriana