Why scope is important ?

I agree with Chockalingam, the questions he has asked are very valuable and more appropriate to scope. In a project, scope plays a vital role, only when your are  clear with the scope the project will be successful. Or else you will come across unnecessary confusion in the development of the project.

Scope Plays a Vital Role in Projects.  The critical success factor for projects is a well defined scope arrived at in a holistic perspective through Stakeholder Analysis (Needs and wants of Stakeholders)  , Product analysis, Product Break down, System Engineering and approved by all stakeholders primarily the business team, IT Team, Quality Assurance & Test Team.

Here it is important to get the  consent from all the stakeholders  (Business, IT, QA) due to the following reasons in order to prevent ambiguity , expectation mismatch. There are some typical scenarios  dealt here due to in appropriate stakeholder analysis and stakeholder management.

***Project is implemented as per approval from Customer IT,  Customer QA approves in QAT (Quality assurance testing) but in Business Acceptance Testing (BAT) business rejects. ***

Due to Technological Constraints as per approval from Customer IT, implementation is done which doesnt match the Business  expectations.

The common causes of Scope creep are

  Ambiguous requirements, One liners, Unanswered Questions, Too many assumptions, Late Discovery of Requirements

Please note that the cost of error correction and risk increases gradually and it is high at later stages in a project life cycle.

Scope is important in project management since the scope of a project is the sum total of all of its products and their requirements or features. "Project Scope Management includes the processes required to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully. It is primarily concerned with defining and controlling what is or is not included in the project.

Sometimes the term scope is used to mean the totality of work needed to complete a project.

There are obviously two point of views to it one is the owner's/client's and one is contractor's/vendor's.

From later's perspective: it may lead to not only delays, cost overrun etc as suggested by Joydeep but also arbitrations and spoiled customer relationship. Experience suggests that in most of the cases (but not all) the client, by virtue of his employer status, takes advantage of ambiguity in scope.

From employer point of view also slips and cost overrun are killing. The vendor's loss is of no advantage to a sincere employer. On the contrary there are situations where a contractor's loss becomes a project's loss and thus the owner's loss.

Hence a clear scope is important.

if i talk about any quality  mangement system Scope is the start and the end of whole project , as it laid down a comlpete idea about aim and how to achive it....,

Stakeholder needs, wants, and expectations are analyzed and converted into requirements (scope)

So, if we don’t control and manage scope continuously definitely project will have negative results.

Let's take an example:

When you have been asked by your client to guide him for Hussain Sagar lake trip.

(1) Where would you start?

(2) Where would you end?

(3) How long will you guide him?

(4) Do you need to show him the scenic view of Necklace road?

etc., etc.,

You might have answer for the above questions being at HYD. So Scope is important to validate your solution against customer expectation(s).

A detailed project scope statement is critical to project success and builds upon the major deliverables, assumptions, and constraints. Stakeholder needs, wants, and expectations are analyzed and converted into requirements. The assumptions and constraints are analyzed for completeness.

Any change to the scope must follow change control processes, and scope document should be carefully baselined.

If scope is not managed (defined, documented, verified, and controlled) carefully it will lead to scope creep.

Scope is like making a blue print of a building or a house before it is being constructed so I guess it is very pertinent and important.