Project scope management

The overall discipline of defining, documenting, controlling, and validating what is and isn't included in a project — encompassing scope statements, change control, and scope verification throughout the engagement.

Example

An agency's project scope management process spans four stages: defining scope during discovery, documenting it in the SOW, controlling changes through a change-order workflow, and verifying delivered work matches what was agreed at sign-off.

Why it matters for agencies

Project scope management is the umbrella discipline that all the more specific terms — scope statement, change control, scope verification — are components of. Agencies that treat scope management as a single upfront document, rather than an ongoing process through the whole project, are the ones most exposed to creep.