Step 2: Review the Scope

With the project authorized in Step 1, planning begins — and it opens exactly where most headaches are born: the scope. Defining the scope means saying, clearly, what the project will deliver and, just as importantly, what it will not do. That outline is what protects your schedule and your budget from last-minute changes.

For your career: planning is anticipating. The discipline of detailing scope, risks, schedule and cost that you practice here is what separates the professional who delivers from the one who only promises — use it to plan your own growth too.

From the initial survey to the detail

The goal of planning is to refine the survey you did at Initiation with the level of detail you actually need. Reviewing the scope brings together three processes of the PMBOK® Guide, 8th Edition:

• Collect the requirements — define and document the stakeholders’ needs;
• Define the scope — develop the detailed scope statement;
• Develop the scope structure (WBS) — subdivide the deliverables into smaller, manageable components.

You already made a first pass at them in Step 1 (the Why, the What and the How of 5W2H). Now you repeat those activities with more depth, turning up the magnification.

The WBS and its dictionary

The WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) decomposes the deliverables into work packages, numbered by level (1, 1.1, 1.1.1…). It is the project’s main map: it shows, visually and hierarchically, what will be done, and it becomes the reference for the schedule, the costs and the control — whenever possible, every project document should reference the WBS code.

Once the WBS is defined, you have to make sure each item is well described. That detail is the WBS Dictionary: it sets the boundaries of what is included in each work package, with information on how the work will be done, technical questions, requirements and who is responsible. It works as a work authorization system and prevents scope from creeping up silently. Among the essential pieces of information is who creates and who approves each deliverable — and, in some cases, who must be consulted and informed (the RACI matrix).

On your board (ProjectAdm)

The WBS dictionary lives in the cards themselves. In the WBS list, create one card per phase and, inside it, one card per deliverable. In each card’s description, record what is included, the requirements and who is responsible for creating and approving it (RACI); in the card’s checklist, the activities. In organizations that require a formal document, the dictionary can also be a separate file (PMO methodology).

Predictive × Agile

In the Predictive approach, you detail the WBS and the WBS Dictionary as a stable basis for the decisions that follow.

In the Agile approach, reviewing the scope means refining the Product Backlog — a continuous activity, not a single event. Large stories (epics) are broken into smaller ones; each gets clear acceptance criteria (the objective conditions for considering it done) and an estimate in story points, comparing the relative size between stories (often with planning poker). Prioritization usually uses MoSCoW (Must, Should, Could, Won’t). The refined backlog is the agile equivalent of the WBS and its dictionary.

🎯 Your turn — Review the scope

🎯 Objective: detail what will be delivered — turn the objectives from Step 1 into clear phases, deliverables and requirements.

✅ Before you start: the Project Charter filled in on the board (Step 1) and the team defined.

🗃️ On your board: work in the WBS list (or the Product Backlog, if you chose Agile).

📋 Checklist:

1. Create a card for each phase of the project (phases are optional — a project without them stays at two levels).
2. Inside each phase, list the deliverables (one card per deliverable).
3. For each deliverable, write the requirements and the acceptance criterion in the card’s description.
4. Use the card’s checklist to detail the main activities.

🎁 Your deliverable: the WBS (phases → deliverables → work packages) built on the board.  ⏱️ Time: about 2 hours.  🛠️ Tools: ProjectAdm + decomposition + rolling-wave planning.

💡 Accelerate with AI: run Step 2 in the course menu. It reads your board and hands you the prompt for this step already filled in with the objectives and the deliverables you wrote in Step 1 — on your clipboard and on the matching card of the References list. Paste it into your AI, then paste the whole answer into the “0. Inbox” card of your board and run Step 2 again: it turns the answer into the phases, deliverables and work packages of your WBS, with the acceptance criteria in place.

💬 Tip: the WBS is the project’s main map — it shows visually and hierarchically what will be done and puts everyone on the same page.

🎁 Your artifact — the WBS Dictionary in Word and Excel, generated from your board

When you finish Step 2, Project Together reads your WBS on the board and generates the WBS Dictionary in two formats — Word .docx and Excel .xlsx — saved in _saida/documentos/. Each work package appears with its WBS code and its acceptance criterion, without you copying anything.

How to check it:

1. Open _saida/documentos/Dicionário da EAP – (your project’s name).xlsx (or the .docx) and check that every deliverable and package you created is there, numbered (1, 1.1, 1.1.1).
2. Check that each package has its acceptance criterion — that is what defines “done” later on.
3. Need to adjust? Reorganize the WBS cards on the board and generate it again with the D key in the menu.

With the scope detailed, it is time to look at what can go wrong: Step 3: Analyze the risks.