Project Scope Management - Project Scope vs Product Scope

The PMP exam would require PMP exam candidates to understand the difference between the project scope and product scope. Hence, the diagram below shall seek to illustrate the key difference(s):

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Define Activities - Rolling Wave Planning

Under the "Define Activities" process, Rolling Wave Planning is another known technique for progressive elaboration and where work pending accomplishment in the near term is planned in detail.

Rolling Wave Planning allows future work to be planned at a higher level and when information is gradually increasing in the near term, work packages can be decomposed further into activities.


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Define Activities & Create WBS - Decomposition

Decomposition is categorized under Tools & Techniques and it is a process where activities relating to the project scope and deliverables are broken down into more manageable parts. 

Create WBS - This process involves decomposing the deliverables down into account codes (1st level) and then into work packages (2nd level).

Define Activities - This process involves decomposing each work package further into actionable outputs to achieve the outcomes in order to support deliverables.


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Collect Requirements - Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM)

The Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM) is one of the project documents. The RTM is both an Input and Output in the Project Scope Management Knowledge Area and is considered as one of the Project Documents for update as part of the Output.

The RTM is a template with fields linking the product requirements to the deliverables that satisfy them. A sample of the Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM) can be seen in the Figure below:

RTM table is an extract from PMBOK 5th Edition.

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Project Fundamentals - Scope, Schedule & Cost Baselines

Baselines are defined as bases for performance measurements between current and planned levels in a given time period.

In the PMP syllabus, there are 3 types of baselines and they are (1) Scope, (2) Schedule and (3) Cost.

(1) Scope Baseline

It is comprised of the Project Scope Statement, WBS and WBS Dictionary which have been generally accepted and agreed.

(2) Schedule Baseline

This is the accepted and approved baseline start and finish dates in the schedule model to assess if there is variance present.

(3) Cost Baseline

It refers to the accepted and agreed project budget, excluding any management reserves.

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Define Scope - Project Scope Statement

The Project Scope Statement is one of the Output items of the Define Scope process and it documents the following:

1. Project and/or Product Scope Description;
2. Acceptance Criteria;
3. Deliverables;
4. Exclusion Criteria;
5. Project Constraints; and
6. Assumptions


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Plan Scope Management - Scope and Requirements Management Plans

Let's go back to basics by referring back to PMBOK's definitions of Scope and Requirement.

Scope - The sum of the products, services, and results to be provided as a project = The work or actions that are required to be done in order to fulfill the requirements.

Requirement - A condition or capability that is required to be present in a product, service, or result to satisfy a
contract or other formally imposed specification = The functions of the product, service or result to achieve a the desired set of outcomes.

Therefore the bottomline is:

Scope Management Plan - A component of the project or program management plan that describes how the scope will be defined, developed, monitored, controlled and verified.

Requirements Management Plan - A component of the project management plan that describes how requirements will be analyzed, documented and managed. 


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