The scope baseline is the project management artifact, in which all the works planned to be carried out within the scope of the project are described in detail. In order to keep the scope under control during the project, the scope baseline is taken as a reference and the progress of the project and the completed works are constantly compared with the scope baseline. Thus, the answer to the question of whether the project is being continued in accordance with the planned scope can be found.
Scope baseline is categorized among the baseline artifacts and considered to be used in the following performance domains,
The scope baseline is created as a result of scope definition and consists of a project scope statement, a work breakdown structure (WBS), a work breakdown structure dictionary, and planning packages approved by stakeholders. The scope baseline is a project management artifact used in many processes, including the creation of a timeline, the assignment of resources, the control and monitoring of project work during the execution of project activities.
The scope baseline, along with the schedule baseline and the cost baseline, constitutes the performance measurement baseline. Since the scope baseline is used as a basis for comparing project performance with the planned performance, change control processes must be implemented in order to make changes to the scope baseline. The scope baseline forms part of the project management plan along with other baseline documents.
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