What is project scope?

As a noun, scope is defined as "the area covered by a given activity or subject," and as a verb it's "to examine or investigate." In project management, it is both. The scope of the project refers to "the area to be covered" by this project. That scope calls out what's included and what the boundaries are—what's in, what's out. As an action, "scoping the project" refers to examining and investigating to determine which areas must be covered (e.g., what deliverables should be produced) in order to ultimately meet the project's business objectives.

In project management, the scope of a project is the sum total of all of its output products or results or deliverables—whatever the project is supposed to accomplish, expressed in terms of requirements. A scope statement of some kind is developed to ensure that…

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