The Most Important Piece of Paperwork for Your Projects

Friday, August 01, 2008 Filed in: Business | Resources

I often preach extensively about project management at design and creative conferences around the globe. The one piece of paperwork that I always emphasize is completing a scoping document for a project then getting the client to sign off and accept it. This one piece of papaerwork can solve all sorts of problems and is really worth the 2-5 hours it takes to write. The outline is as follows.

Project Scoping Document

( 2 - 1 0 p a g e s )

Project Name
Executive Summary
Background
Project Scope (High Level)

Project Objectives
Deliverables
Organizations
Interfaces Required
Assumptions
Constraints
Evaluation Criteria
Risks
Rewards
Budgets
Schedules (Due Dates)
Project Team Readiness

Key Roles

Executive Sponsor
Project Manager
Business Experts
Technical Experts

Signature Lines - Sign Off “Charter”