When starting a project, many entrepreneurs, mainly, with a lot of desire to explore a market of action and that are eager to boost their future online business, end up forgetting an important detail in the process of developing the remote work: the scope of the project.

The scope is made up of all the functional needs of your project, which the professional will take into account when sending you the budget, estimating deadlines and even evaluating the viability of the development. Basically it will be a document with everything the professional should, and many times also should not, do.

This detail of requirements is essential so that the freelance programmer, for example, can accurately estimate all the stages necessary for your idea to be developed without problems once it has been set.

Although I believe that this detail is purely technical, this can be worked on by the professional, so that your needs can be expressed in a technical way but in such a way that both can have a full understanding of what is needed. An example of this may be:

“My system requires management reports for the accounting, human resources and sales areas, in which each employee in their sector can perform the tasks determined by their supervisor.”

In a more technical approach, the freelancer would develop this functionality in the following stages:

• Issuance of management reports divided by department;
• Division of areas with access levels;
• User-managed access levels with supervisor profile, which grants permission to users with employee profiles.

Why is scope a key part of every project?

The scope is fundamental not only for the professional, but also for who hires, since with the functionalities described and mapped in a clear and well-founded way it will be much easier to identify the stages of development at which the professional should be more cautious, and even during the validation stage of what has already been developed. This document will facilitate – and greatly – the process of developing the management of your project as a whole.

Along with the scope, it is always important to know the methodologies that the professional will use in your project, as well as how will be the monitoring of activities already completed, all this with the aim of minimizing problematic situations and that may wear the client-professional relationship out in during the course of the project.

It never hurts to document what was agreed, as well as to have common sense regarding what was previously requested and what is expected to be delivered, since many times we have a Brainstorming session in our heads, but we do not make it clear what we want and the professional only ends up having access to what we report.

Therefore, it is of utmost importance, before accepting a proposal, to check whether the scope and understanding of the freelancer are in line with your expectations. In this way, you can ensure the success of your project, even before it has started.

Now that you know the importance of scope in a project, you just need to find the ideal professional to do it. Create your project now at Workana and access hundreds of talented professionals!

Author: Tiago Souza, Converter and IT Consultant at Workana, Programmer and passionate about the freedom that freelance work provides.