Plan Scope Management

Creates the scope and requirements management plans that define how scope will be defined, validated, and controlled. It sets the rules of the game before scope work begins.

Process Group Planning Knowledge Area Project Scope Management

Before defining what is in the project, the team decides how scope itself will be managed: how requirements get collected, how the scope statement and WBS will be produced, and how scope changes will be validated and controlled. The output is guidance, not the scope itself.

Plan Scope Management: key inputs and outputs — The key inputs feeding Plan Scope Management and the deliverables it produces — full ITTOs are listed below.

This is a short but important governance step. It establishes who approves scope changes and how scope creep will be prevented, so later disputes have a pre-agreed process to fall back on.

Common pitfalls. Skipping it and improvising scope control later; making the plan heavier than the project needs; and failing to agree up front how changes will be handled, which invites scope creep.

Inputs, Tools & Techniques, and Outputs

Inputs

Project charter
Project management plan
Enterprise environmental factors
Organizational process assets

Tools & Techniques

Expert judgment
Data analysis
Meetings

Outputs

Scope management plan
Requirements management plan