What to Include in a Project Scope Statement

The Scope Statement is an essential element of any project. Project

managers use a Scope Statement to outline the results their project will
produce and the terms and conditions under which they will perform their
work. The people who requested the project and the project team should
agree to all terms in the Scope Statement before actual project work
begins.
Your Scope Statement should include the following information:

Justification: How and why your project came to be, the business
need(s) it addresses, the scope of work to be performed, and how it will
affect and be affected by other related activities

Objectives: The products, services, and/or results your project will

produce (also referred to asdeliverables)

Product scope description: The features and functions of the

products, services, and/or results your project will produce

Product acceptance criteria: The process and criteria for accepting

completed products, services, or results

Constraints: Restrictions that limit what you can achieve, how and
when you can achieve it, and how much achieving it can cost

Assumptions: Statements about how you will address uncertain

information as you conceive, plan, and perform your project
Think of your Scope Statement, when viewed together with the other
components of your project plan, as a binding agreement in which

You and your team commit to producing certain results.

Your projects requesters commit that theyll consider your project 100
percent successful if you produce these results.

You and your team identify all restrictions regarding your approach to
the work and what you need to support your work.

Your projects requesters agree that there are no restrictions other

than the ones youve identified and that theyll provide you the support
you declare you need.

You and your team identify all assumptions you made when agreeing
to the terms of your Scope Statement.

Your projects requesters agree that, if any of these assumptions

prove to be invalid, you may have to modify some or all of your project
plans.
Of course, predicting the future is impossible. In fact, the farther into the
future you try to look, the less certain your predictions can be. However,
your Scope Statement represents your project commitments based on what
you know today and expect to be true in the future. If and when situations
change, you have to assess the effect of the changes on all aspects of your
project and propose the necessary changes to your Scope Statement. Your
projects requesters always have the option of either accepting your
proposed changes (allowing the project to continue) or canceling your
project

Aims and objectives

It is often useful to consider your research questions in
terms of aim(s) and objectives.
The aim of the work, i.e. the overall purpose of the study,
should be clearly and concisely defined.
Aims:
Are broad statements of desired outcomes, or the
general intentions of the research, which 'paint a
picture' of your research project
Emphasize what is to be accomplished (not how it is
to be accomplished)
Address the long-term project outcomes, i.e. they
should reflect the aspirations and expectations of the
research topic.
Once aims have been established, the next task is to
formulate the objectives. Generally, a project should have
no more than two or three aims statements, while it may
include a number of objectives consistent with them.
Objectives are subsidiary to aims and:
Are the steps you are going to take to answer your
research questions or a specific list of tasks needed
to accomplish the goals of the project

 Emphasize how aims are to be accomplished

Must be highly focused and feasible
Address the more immediate project outcomes
Make accurate use of concepts
Must be sensible and precisely described
Should read as an 'individual' statement to convey
your intentions
Here is an example of a project aim and subsidiary
objectives:
Aim
To critically assess the collection and disposal
operations for bulky household waste in order to
identify factors, which contribute to performance and
technical efficiency.
Objectives
To critically assess bulky waste operations by local
authorities, including volumes/types of materials
arising and current disposal/recovery routes.
To classify and evaluate the operation of furniture
recovery schemes nationally.

 To make recommendations to improve the operational

effectiveness of, and to maximise recovery
opportunities of bulky waste collection.
Aims and Objectives should:
Be concise and brief.
Be interrelated; the aim is what you want to achieve,
and the objective describes how you are going to
achieve that aim.
Be realistic about what you can accomplish in the
duration of the project and the other commitments you
have
Provide you and your supervisor(s) with indicators of
how you intend to:
.
o approach the literature and theoretical issues
related to your project.
o access your chosen subjects, respondents, units,
goods or services.
o develop a sampling frame and strategy or a
rationale for their selection.
o develop a strategy and design for data collection
and analysis.

o deal with ethical and practical problems in your

research.
Aims and Objectives should not:
Be too vague, ambitious or broad in scope.
Just repeat each other in different terms.
Just be a list of things related to your research topic.
Contradict your methods - i.e. they should not imply
methodological goals or standards of measurement,
proof or generalisability of findings that the methods
cannot sustain.
At the conclusion of your project you will need to assess
whether or not you have met your objectives and if not,
why not. However, you may not always meet your aims in
full, since your research may reveal that your questions
were inappropriate, that there are intervening variables
you could not account for or that the circumstances of the
study have changed, etc. Whatever the case, your
conclusion will still have to reflect on how well the
research design, which was guided by your objectives has
contributed to addressing your aims.
Activity 20: Aims & Objectives
This activity provides you with the opportunity to receive feedback on your proposed research aims and
objectives. Now open your log book and complete Activity 20.