The pandemic has put a lot of wear and tear on our house because we’ve been spending so much time at home. The house needed some freshening up, so we’ve been doing a few home improvement projects. We used the project management principle of scope planning to help us size up the projects before getting started. Scope planning is a useful process for any project to fully understand the work involved and get on the same page with your partner.

In project management, scope planning provides an overall picture of the work. It provides a thoughtful framework to decide if the project is even worth doing. If so, scope planning can provide a framework for getting it done. You can use this article to think through a large or small project you would like to get done at your house.

Scope covers the who, what, why, when, and how of a project. This includes the rationale for the project, what is being done or created, the people involved, and the budget. Here’s an example of scope planning illustrated with our project of painting some of the house. 

The Why

Before you embark on any project, it helps to think through why you’re doing it. The first part of your project scope should explain why you’re taking on the project in the first place. What are benefits and the specific criteria that will make it successful?

Because our walls were dinged and marked up, we decided it was time to repaint the high-traffic areas of the house. We had a new lock on our front door with a different paint outline that needed to be updated. Plus we wanted to change to a higher-gloss paint in our hallways to make the walls easier to clean. We had a pretty simple why – a cosmetic update to freshen up the house and make it look better. Now that we knew why, we needed to determine the what, who, how much, and when, for this project. 

The What

The next question is the what:  That is, what do you want this project to look like? What are you going to do or create for the project? This is the actual work that is going to be done – what is being created, changed our built.  For us, the “what” included the parts of the house that would be painted, including the sheen and the color. We decided to paint the hallways, banister, downstairs bathroom, and doors. We selected a warm beige with a higher-gloss finish for the hallway, forest green for the front door, and a grey-blue for the bathroom.

We decided not the do the entire house or my son’s bedroom because it would be too disruptive, and those rooms still looked fine. In other words, we decided that these rooms were “out of scope,” which is a project management term for not included in the project. It’s helpful to remember the phrase “out of scope” when someone wants to add something back into a project that was previously removed. Scope reminds people of the agreed-upon parameters of the project and keeps the budget and timeline on track.

The Who

Now that you know what is being created, you can determine who should be involved to make it happen. For a home project, will this be people in your family or someone else? Think about what roles are necessary and then who can fill them. This also comes down to available time and expertise. 

My husband and I are busy and aren’t the greatest painters. So, we looked into hiring a painter or outsourcing the work. We asked around and went with someone my sister had used for her house with good results.

The How Much

How much means the cost of the project. Determining the overall budget and how to handle the funding sets clear expectations and informs the rest of the project planning. The financial resources available will determine the size and viability of moving forward. For our painting project, we needed to get estimates first to see what the cost would be before making a decision. Fortunately, we got a quote we could afford.

The When

Discussing when the project will occur helps determine the timing. Because our painting project had no major timing requirements, it just depended on our schedule and when the painters were available.  The painters said that they could complete the project in one day on a Saturday. We just needed to pick our paint colors first. 

Assessing Scope

Now that you have outlined your project, take a step back and look at the big picture. Look at each component of the why, what, who, how much, and when to see if it still makes sense. It’s important to discuss each project as a family and see what works and what doesn’t.

When we looked at our overall painting project, we wanted to get it done, we were comfortable with the recommended painter, and it was within our budget. We decided to move forward when the timing worked for our schedule.  We picked a weekend that wasn’t too busy when we could be home. I’m happy to say that the house looks great, and we love the new bathroom color!

In retrospective, one element we should have added in our scope was removing the pictures on the wall and cleaning the baseboards. It would have been helpful to do some online research on painting projects to see if something else should be included in our planning. We got these things done Saturday morning before the painters arrived, but it took a lot of effort.

Scope planning helped us get the project done because we thought through the components in advance and agreed to what would happen. For your own projects, you can use these scope planning steps as a thinking process, a conversation starter, and/or a reference document, depending on the size of the project. Scope planning tools are used by businesses every day, and you can use them to streamline life at home. A win for the family! 

Hilary Kinney is the author of Project Management for Parents, a timeless book that provides resources for busy parents to streamline life at home. She is a certified Professional Project Manager with 17 years of experience at a Fortune 500 company.