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What Is the Key Difference Between Project Scope and Requirements?
Discover the core difference in project management: requirements detail product features and stakeholder needs, while scope defines the work needed to deliver them, essential for PMP exam success and avoiding scope creep.
Question
How do scope and requirements differ?
A. Scope only applies to agile projects
B. They mean exactly the same thing
C. Requirements describe features/needs; scope describes the work to deliver them
Answer
C. Requirements describe features/needs; scope describes the work to deliver them
Explanation
In predictive project management, requirements capture the specific features, functions, and qualities that stakeholders expect in the project’s product, service, or result, serving as the foundation gathered early through elicitation from customers and users. Scope, in contrast, defines the boundaries of all project work required to deliver those requirements, including tasks, deliverables, and exclusions documented in the scope statement and decomposed via the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). This distinction ensures requirements focus on “what” the end product must achieve to meet needs, while scope outlines “how” the project team will perform the necessary work, preventing confusion during planning, execution, and control to avoid scope creep and align efforts with business objectives.