Defining your project scope

Establish phases, create tasks, prioritize work and set deadlines through Forecast's Project Scoping functionality.

This article includes:

• Overview of the Scoping page

• Scoping project work and managing phases

• Viewing and managing your Scoping section

Overview of the Scoping page

The Scoping page is where the Project Owner can plan out their project, mainly determining and documenting the list of specific phases, tasks, deadlines and ultimately the cost of the project.
To start scoping your project, phases needs to be defined so tasks can be assigned to each. Phases are your project goals, or also known as the phases of your project to make it successful.

At the top of the Scoping page, project totals are displayed which are a quick summary of your financial estimates and actuals, based on the tasks and the work performed.

Scoping project work and managing phases

In order to scope the work needed for the project, phases need to be created so tasks, people and estimates can be assigned to each.

To add a phase

1. Access your desired project from the Projects tab.
2. Select Scoping from the sub-menu (if this is a new project your Scoping section will be empty). 
3. Click on New Phase (which is located on the top right-hand side of the scoping section) to add a phase.
4. Give the phase a name , and specify start and end dates.
5. Add the necessary Tasks, Roles, People and Estimates within this new phase. 

Once you have completed Scoping out your project, it might look like this.

Managing your phases

Within the three-dot icon on the right side of each phase, it is possible to move, duplicate, merge and delete phases. 

To duplicate a phase

1. Click on the three-dots icon on the right side of the phase.
2. Select Duplicate.

To move a phase

1. Click on the three-dots icon on the right side of the phase.
2. Select Move to another project.
3. In the pop-up select the project to move the phase to.
4. Click on Move.

To merge a phase

1. Click on the three-dots icon on the right side of the phase.
2. Select Merge Phases.
3. In the pop-up select the phase to merge with.
4. Click on Update.

To delete a phase

Please note that by deleting a phase, the system will only delete the actual phase and not the tasks belonging to it.

1. Click on the three-dots icon on the right side of the phase.
2. Select Delete.
3. Confirm deletion by selecting again Delete.

Viewing and managing your Scoping section

It is possible to expand or reduce the amount of details visible in the Scoping page, depending on your business needs. In addition, it is also possible to export your project scoping as CSV so you can always review it later and do a comparison when your project is successfully completed.

Viewing options available

• View phases as All, Done or Active: Click on the dropdown to view phases that are either Done, Active or All of them.
• Search bar, Expand/Collapse: Click on the search bar to quickly find the task that you are looking for by name or ID. Choose to expand or collapse all of the phases in the Scoping page by clicking on the Expand/Collapse button.  
• Filtering: Click on the Filter Button to filter phases/tasks by Project, Status, Client Role, Label or Indicator.
• Grouping: Click on the three-dots icon on the top right of the page, to group your tasks inside of each phase by person or by role.  With the grouping method you can see how many tasks were assigned to each person or role and you can keep track of the estimated and registered time per person as well as see the planned and actual revenue.
• Show Retainer Periods: In projects with the budget type "Retainer" you can display the retainer periods in your scoping page to match the periods with your phases. 

Exporting the project scoping

It is possible to export a copy of the Scoping page  by downloading a CSV version. Using the Filtering settings, it is possible to define the content that will be visible in the export itself. Note that the export will reflect the time entries in minutes.

To export Scoping as CSV and customise

1. In your Project Scoping page, click on the Eye icon (Show/Hide details) on the top right.
2. In the dropdown select what information should be visible in the CSV
3. Once ready, click on the Export icon to save on your device.