## Scope

The combination of all project goals plus the work required to accomplish those goals represents the scope of your project. It is the sum of all the individual, concrete tasks that your team must do.

In the clockwork exhibit project, for example, scope could include tasks such as painting the galleries in which the clocks will be displayed, hanging 75 clocks, and writing brochures to advertise the exhibit. Under severe deadline pressure, the clockwork project manager might cut the scope by hanging fewer clocks — and painting fewer galleries — than had originally been planned.

When you define scope, it’s as important to state what is not part of the project as it is to define what is part of the project. For example, the clockwork project manager might decide that an outside contractor should paint the museum galleries where the clocks will hang. The project scope would then be limited to designing the exhibit and hanging the clocks. If it later were to become feasible to have the museum crew paint the galleries, then the scope would increase and affect the budget and schedule.

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