How to Develop a Project Scope Checklist I

Have you ever started a project only to see it veer wildly off course? That’s scope creep in action, and it’s a common pitfall in most projects—from software development and marketing to construction, heavy machinery, and even public sector initiatives.

But there’s a solution. A well-crafted scope management plan can keep your project on track and save money.

Want to avoid the costly consequences of project delays and scope creep? This handy checklist outlines the steps to create the perfect project scope statement for any industry.

Understanding Project Scope Statement

A project scope statement is a formal document that outlines a project’s boundaries and defines what is and isn’t included. It ensures the project team understands its goals, deliverables, and constraints. 

A project scope statement typically contains four key elements:

• Project objectives: Specific goals and outcomes the project aims to achieve
• Deliverables: ‘Tangible’ outputs that will be produced 
• Scope inclusions (and exclusions): Specific project tasks, activities, or components that are (and aren’t) included within the project
• Constraints: Limitations or restrictions that may impact the project

Creating a well-defined project scope statement can help prevent scope creep and keep the project on track. A project scope statement serves these purposes:

• Reduces risks: By clearly defining the project’s boundaries, it helps to mitigate risks associated with scope creep, cost overruns, and schedule delays
• Improves efficiency: As you know what’s crucial right at the beginning, you can allocate resources and manage your budget better
• Keeps stakeholders satisfied: As everyone agrees up front to the project’s deliverables, you can minimize conflicts and scope creep down the line
• Serves as a reference point: When uncertainties arise or team members change, the project scope statement can be a reliable source of truth

In short, a project scope statement provides clarity, direction, and control, leading to on-time and on-budget project completion. 

How to Write a Project Scope Statement (with Examples)

Now that we’ve seen what a project scope statement is and why you need one, let’s get into how you can create one for more precise project direction and better team alignment. We’ll also examine how project management tools like can support the process, helping teams organize tasks, track progress, and collaborate efficiently.

Here’s a quick summary of the key steps:

TL;DR checklist for creating a project scope statement

• Determine the project purpose
• Make a resource plan
• List out the deliverables
• Identify project constraints
• Draft your project scope statement
• Implement a change control process

Now, let’s explore this in detail.

1. Figure out your ‘whats’ and ‘whys’

Understanding your project’s purpose is fundamental to creating a clear and compelling scope statement (and project success). This involves identifying the project’s objectives, business needs, and desired outcomes.

Here are some questions that you can ask yourself during this stage:

• What problem is the project solving?
• What are the desired outcomes or benefits?
• How does this project align with the organization’s overall goals?

This step is your North Star, directing your choices and decisions as you shape your project plan. Bring in your entire project team (or at least the key project stakeholders involved) during this stage. Not only will different team members bring diverse perspectives into the discussion, but when you involve someone early on, they’ll also feel more invested in the project outcome.

Use a virtual whiteboarding tool to make the discussion more interactive (particularly if you’re a remote or hybrid team). For example, the Project Scope Whiteboard Template can help you brainstorm together as a team and create a rough draft of your project scope. 

The template is a visual and collaborative tool designed to organize and manage all aspects of your project scope. It provides a centralized space to track project activities, resources, deliverables, and timelines, ensuring nothing gets overlooked. It comes with separate boxes for each of the steps in your project scope plan:

• Information: Gather all relevant data and facts that will shape the project. This ensures everyone, including the project manager, has access to the same foundational information
• Justification: Explain the rationale behind each decision made throughout the project. This helps align team members with the project’s purpose and direction
• Scope: Define project scope—what is included and excluded from the project. This ensures clarity on boundaries and prevents misunderstandings
• Objectives: State the project’s desired outcomes and goals. This helps guide the project’s progress and measures its success
• Deliverables: Specify the tangible outputs or results the project will produce. These serve as benchmarks for tracking progress and completion
• Exclusions: Outline what is not part of the project to avoid scope creep. This section sets expectations for what won’t be addressed or delivered
• Assumptions: Identify underlying assumptions and potential biases impacting the project. Acknowledging these helps anticipate risks and plan for contingencies

This sets a solid foundation for the rest of the project planning process, giving you more clarity as you allocate resources or outline your project plan. 

📌Example:

Let’s say you’re a construction company that needs to renovate an office building. Here’s what your ‘whys’ (objectives) would be:

Improve the building’s energy efficiency, functionality, and aesthetics to meet changing tenant needs and reduce operating costs.

2. Make a resource plan

Once you’ve defined your project’s objectives, it’s time to assess the resources needed to achieve them. Your project requirements can include identifying the people, equipment, materials, and budget required.

Involve key stakeholders when making this plan to ensure everyone is heard, particularly if you’re working with cross-functional teams. Another best practice is planning for contingencies. This could be as simple as accounting for an employee on vacation during the project period or something more severe like delays in government approval or material logistics. 

Moreover, by planning your project costs and resources upfront, you’ll have a clearer understanding of its requirements, helping you keep it within budget.

📌Example:

For the example of renovating an office building to be energy-efficient, here’s what your resource allocation plan would include:

• Human resources: Architects, plumbers, electricians, construction workers, site managers, and so on
• Equipment and materials: Construction equipment, building materials, electrical supplies, and so on
• Budget: Construction cost, architect and engineer fees, material cost, labor costs, and emergency fund
• Timelines: Key milestones, shift plans, and more

3. List out the deliverables

These are the concrete outcomes that will be delivered to the project sponsors and clients at the end of the project. They’re also your benchmark to measure the project’s success and whether it’s on track. Two important things to keep in mind when figuring out your project deliverables are:

• Making sure that the deliverables are realistic and achievable within the project’s constraints
• Associating each deliverable with a specific deadline or timeframe—project milestones that you can use to track if a project will be delivered on time

Define the specific tasks included (in-scope) and excluded (out-of-scope) from the project at this stage. 

📌Example:

Here are some deliverables that your energy-efficient, renovated office building would need:

• Permit approval: Getting the necessary permits and approvals from local authorities (one month)
• Improved energy efficiency: Lighting, sustainable construction, solar panels, etc. (three months)
• Updated interiors: Modern decor, upgraded rooms, and layout changes (two months)
• Completion certificate: Getting a certificate of completion from the building inspector (one week)

Out-of-scope work can include furnishing the office space, landscaping, and such—though related to office renovation, they’re not part of your project. 

While this is a basic list, we suggest going in-depth for your project management checklist. You can use a tool like Checklists to create hierarchical lists—ensuring no stone is left unturned, and no task falls through the cracks. 

The best thing about task checklists is that they are more than a simple list. You can:

• Assign a particular list item to someone
• Use comments to add more context about the item
• Nest list items for better categorization

Best of all, save checklists as templates to reuse them for future projects. 

4. Identify project constraints

You know what your deliverables are. It’s time to find out what’s blocking you from making them. This can be a time constraint (pressure to finish a project within a limited time frame without impacting the quality of work), a budget constraint (giving a client what they need but within the allocated budget), or even a resource constraint (finding the right team for the job).

By identifying these issues early in the project phase, you can develop strategies to mitigate their impact during the project lifecycle and ensure that it is completed successfully.

📌Example:

You might encounter some constraints as you start your office renovation project.

• The need to complete the renovation during non-business hours to minimize disruption to tenants
• Limited availability of skilled construction workers in the area
• Resistance from tenants to temporary relocation during renovations
• Compliance with green building standards and regulations

5. Draft your project scope statement

Now that you’ve established your project’s goals, resources, and potential challenges, it’s time to consolidate your findings into a formal project scope statement. This document will serve as a roadmap for your project, outlining your project parameters—deliverables, timelines, and more.

Your project scope document will include separate sections for objectives, deliverables (with timelines), exclusions, assumptions exclusions, and constraints. Here are some tips for drafting your scope statement:

• Use clear and concise language to avoid ambiguity
• Clearly define any technical terms or acronyms that may be unfamiliar to stakeholders
• Break the scope into smaller, more manageable components 

Finally, share the draft scope statement with relevant stakeholders and get their feedback. 

Here’s what a customer had to say about how enhances project planning:

If this is your first time creating a scope statement or you want to improve it, the Scope Management Plan Template can be helpful.

This project scope template provides a structured approach to creating and managing your scope statement and includes sections for:

• Project Goals: Define the project’s objectives to keep everyone focused on the desired outcomes
• Problem Statement: Identify the core issue the project will address to justify its necessity
• In-scope/Out-of-scope Tasks: Clarify which tasks are included or excluded to prevent scope creep
• Deliverables: List the tangible outcomes expected at each stage of the project
• Approval: Set the criteria for obtaining stakeholder sign-offs to ensure formal validation

This project scope template organizes all scope-related information in one place, helping managers manage changes efficiently and ensuring that projects stay on time and within budget.

Plus, ’s collaboration features—comments, tags, and real-time editing—make it easy for your team to work on the document together.

📌Example:

Here’s what your final scope of project statement would look like:

Project Title: Office Building Modernization Project

Project Objectives:

• Improve the energy efficiency of the building
• Enhance the building’s functionality to meet the needs of modern tenants

Deliverables:

• Renovated office spaces with updated finishes and layouts
• Improved energy-efficient lighting
• Enhanced security system
• Updated common areas (e.g., lobby, restrooms)

Scope Inclusions:

• Structural repairs
• Sustainability upgrades
• Interior design and finishes

Scope Exclusions:

• Furniture and equipment procurement
• Marketing and leasing activities

Assumptions:

• Necessary permits and approvals will be obtained promptly
• The building’s structural integrity is sound
• Adequate funding is available to complete the project

Constraints:

• Tight deadline of six months
• Lack of skilled labor

Acceptance Criteria:

• The building passes inspection and meets energy efficiency standards
• The project is completed within the specified budget and timeline

📌Here’s another example of organizing an event: an annual conference.

Project Title: Annual Industry Conference

Project Objectives:

• Host an event that promotes the brand and your mission statement
• Create opportunities for attendees to connect and network with each other

Deliverables:

• Conference venue
• Conference agenda
• Speaker lineup
• Registration and ticketing system
• On-site event management
• Post-conference evaluation report

Scope Inclusions:

• Venue selection and booking
• Speaker recruitment and management
• Sponsorship solicitation and management
• Event planning and coordination
• On-site logistics (e.g., registration, food and beverage, AV equipment)

Scope Exclusions:

• Ongoing marketing and promotion activities after the conference
• Post-conference networking events
• Publication of conference proceedings

Assumptions:

• Adequate funding is available to cover all costs
• Necessary permits and approvals will be obtained
• Sufficient staff will be available to manage the conference

Constraints:

• Limited budget
• Tight deadline
• Venue availability

Acceptance Criteria:

• Positive attendee feedback on the conference experience
• The event is completed within the specified budget and timeline

6. Implement a change control process

Finally, you need to create a framework for reviewing, approving, or rejecting proposed changes—so they align with the project’s objectives and do not compromise its scope, schedule, or budget.

You can do this by creating a change control system. Here’s how this works: 

• First, create a committee (three is a good number) that will review all change requests
• Then, set a process through which other team members can request an amendment to your project’s scope
• Finally, analyze if the proposed change would fit into your project’s existing scope

Use a form—like  Forms—to automate this process. Team members can propose the change and justify it. The committee can then review it and share its decision and reason, streamlining the entire process.

By implementing a change control process, you can effectively manage changes to your project, minimize risks, and avoid unnecessary costs. 

Keep your Project on Track with a Scope Statement (and )

Defining the scope of work is the first step to setting up your project for a successful and on-time delivery. This makes a scope statement the best friend of project managers—giving them a clear roadmap that tells what needs to be done, what risks should be avoided, and how. 

At the same time, your project scope lives on a document, while the actual project is tracked in your task management tool. For a more seamless (and holistic) workflow, you can consider using an all-in-one solution like .

With , you can draft your project scope statement, convert deliverables into actionable tasks, and even track time. It is a comprehensive solution for managing everything from project scope statements to tasks and risk mitigation efforts.

Sign up to for free and see how it simplifies project scope management and execution.

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