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What are the definitions and relationship between Goal, Objective, Scope, and Deliverables? Upon searching, I'm seeing conflicting and overlapping definitions of these terms.

starno
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2 Answers2

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Goal and Objective are very similar. As a rule, goals are a bit broader and describe the direction you're attempting to move in, while objectives are more specific and are often measurable. That said, definitions may vary and I would try to agree on a definition in your team, department, or company so that everyone is on the same page.

Scope is the body of work necessary to accomplish something. You'll often hear people refer to something as in scope or out of scope. This is meant to say that some task or deliverable is or is not in the agreed-upon work.

Deliverables are the tangible things created from the work. Traditional project management often uses this in a very concrete way. A particular piece of documentation, source code, and a compiled executable are all deliverables. In the past decade or so, however, I more commonly hear it refer to capabilities in an application. For example, if I added the ability to change a user's password into my application this week, I may call that new capability a deliverable.

Marv Mills
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Daniel
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  • Would you say that the Deliverables are a subset of the Scope? I've seen Scope statements that mention the Deliverables. Hard to to describe the body of work - without revealing what is being completed. – starno Nov 25 '15 at 13:22
  • @starno Deliverables are not a subset of Scope. Deliverables describes the tangible defined outputs of the project. Scope defines the remit of the project. For example a goal might be "change our reports to use the USD currency" and Scope defines which departments' reports should be upgraded (and Out of Scope defines which should definitely not be upgraded), whilst Deliverables defines the actual reports that will be delivered by the upgrade project, perhaps with some user documentation and user training on how to use the new reports – Marv Mills Nov 25 '15 at 14:16
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Goals: High level statement referring the possible businesses and allied benefits consequent upon the completion of a project.

Objectives: Comparatively low level statement and referring to tangible benefits,consequent upon the completion of a project.

Scope: The method to achieve the goals/objectives.

Deliverable: The term used in Lump Sum projects, which are easy to achieve and are a subset of scope. Payments in Lump Sum projects are linked with deliverables.

Sarov
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Engr. Abdul Qayyum
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