A scope statement should be written before the statement of work and it should capture, in very broad terms, the product of the project (e.g., "developing a software-based system to capture and track orders for software"). A scope statement should also include the list of users using the product, as well as the features in the resulting product.^[i]

As a baseline scope statements should contain:

• The project charter ^[1]
• The project owner, sponsors, and stakeholders ^[2]
• The problem statement ^{[3] [4]}
• The project goals and objectives ^[1]
• The project requirements ^[1]
• The project deliverables ^[1]
• The project non-goals (what is out of scope) ^[1]
• Milestones ^[2]
• Cost estimates ^[1]

In more project oriented organizations the scope statement could also contain these and other sections:

• Project scope management plan ^[5]
• Approved change requests ^[5]
• Project assumptions and risks ^[5]
• Project acceptance criteria ^[5]

The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines the project scope statement to include

• the description of the project scope,^[1]
• major deliverables,^[1]
• assumptions,^[1] and
• constraints.^[1]

and is part of the project scope baseline.^[ii]