In this article
This series of five articles has been produced to support people working in the creative and cultural sectors to deliver digital projects effectively. The articles are accompanied by a practical workbook to support the process.
Scoping is the first stage of any digital project. It’s your opportunity to explore what you want to achieve, understand what’s realistic for you or your organisation, and bring the right people into the conversation. Taking the time to scope well gives you clarity, reduces risk and helps you make decisions as your project develops.
What is the scoping phase?
Scoping is a fact-finding stage that helps you shape the direction and purpose of your project. It involves outlining your objectives, identifying who the work is for, and agreeing what the project will (and won’t) include. For organisations, this early clarity also helps everyone develop a shared understanding of the work, builds buy-in across teams, and sets the foundation for effective collaboration.
Start with clear objectives
A helpful way to begin is to ask yourself a set of structured questions. What are you ultimately trying to achieve? What digital skills already exist in your team? How much time can you dedicate to a new project? Using the classic “Who? What? Why? When?” can help you shape the basic framework.
For example:
Who is the project for, and who is it not for?
What problem are you trying to solve?
Why this project rather than another one?
When is the right time to tackle it?
These questions help you design a project that meets real needs, uses the most relevant tools or platforms, and supports your wider goals.
Before moving forward, take time to clearly articulate the rationale for delivering your project and why it matters now. There could be lots of practical reasons such as an outdated website or needing a CRM to better manage customer data. But it’s useful at this stage to take a step back and think about your strategic priorities. Digital
projects can be time and resource heavy, so thinking about which one is going to make the biggest impact can be a great way to prioritise.
Building buy-in
For organisations, strong internal engagement is essential. A small working group can bring together colleagues from across the organisation including senior staff with strategic oversight and team members who understand the day-to-day challenges. This mix of perspectives helps ensure the project is grounded in both ambition and practical reality.
If your project spans departments, it’s helpful to agree decision making processes early on. For example, for a CRM project, does final sign off sit with the CEO or the Marketing Director? Clarifying expectations at this point minimises confusion later.
Action: Read this excellent article from Ash Mann who introduces some useful frameworks to help agree roles, responsibilities and decision-making processes for your project.
A scoping checklist for success
Use the checklist below to support your scoping process and guide early discussions.
Start with a clear picture of your individual, organisational and team-level goals. Understanding how a digital project supports your strategy helps you maintain focus and make informed choices. This also makes it easier to prioritise features, allocate resources and manage expectations.
Internal research
Begin by reviewing your existing digital landscape:
You can do this research through formal methods such as staff surveys and focus groups, by auditing your data and mapping out your current systems and how they
relate to each other. Equally, more informal conversations with colleagues or specific teams can be really useful for getting the ‘real story’.
External research
Look at others in your sector and beyond to understand emerging trends and approaches. Peers can offer inspiration and practical insights. A quick coffee or phone call can reveal what has worked well for them and what hasn’t. You may also want to gather audience feedback to understand what people need from your digital offer.
For organisations, digital projects often require cross team working. A working group brings together people from different business areas such as marketing, IT, artistic programming, development and finance. These perspectives help you understand both the strategic priorities and the practical realities of implementation. People are always the key to technology projects: involving the right people early builds buy-in and shared ownership. Ensure you have sponsorship from someone in your senior team to help unblock issues that arise.
Think about who you want to reach with your project: who already engages with you, and who might you be missing? For organisations, who is the right person to lead the project, which colleagues can support you, who is going to be impacted and who are the decision makers? Mapping your internal and external stakeholders helps ensure the project supports the audiences and communities that matter most.
Action: Use the Stakeholder Mapping template in the Digital Projects workbook to map your stakeholders.
Understanding what people want from your systems, and what the internal and external challenges and frustrations are with existing systems and processes, helps refine the needs of the project and get early buy-in.
User stories help you keep your audiences’ needs at the centre of your planning. They describe what a user wants to do and why. For example, “As a website visitor, I want to find upcoming events quickly so I can book a ticket.” User stories can be written for both external audiences and internal users such as staff or volunteers. They ensure that features and functions directly support real needs.
Action: Use the User stories template in the Digital Projects workbook to start thinking about user needs.
Create a realistic budget that covers design, development, testing, and ongoing maintenance. Most digital projects evolve over time, so consider phasing your work. Fund the first stage, test and learn from it, then plan how future iterations could build on those insights. Digital projects can work for a wide range of budgets. Think about how much you realistically want to spend but also talk to potential suppliers and peers to get a benchmark.
KPIs should reflect what success looks like for you or your organisation. If your aim is to reach more young people, track the demographics engaging with your digital content. If revenue generation is a priority, set financial targets. Clear, measurable KPIs help you stay on track and evaluate whether the project is working.
Action: Use the KPI template in the Digital Projects workbook to record your KPIs.
Write down in really simple terms what the project is and what it is trying to achieve, who is involved, what it is likely to cost, what the big risks are, the research you have undertaken and a headline timeline. The project overview can adapt over time, but writing everything down in plain English at this stage helps everyone see what you are aiming for.
Action: Use the Project Overview template in the Digital Projects workbook to describe your project in simple terms.
Common challenges and how to avoid them
1. Working in silos
For organisations, if one person or team scopes the project without involving others, essential requirements may be missed. Engage stakeholders early to avoid misalignment and future frustrations.
2. Unclear objectives
Without clear goals linked to your strategy, the project scope can lose focus. Return to your strategic priorities whenever decisions feel difficult.
3. Conflicting priorities
Even with clear objectives, teams or partners may disagree on what should come first. Use your KPIs and strategic aims to guide prioritisation.
4. Scope creep
Broadening the scope too widely can lead to delays and increased costs. Keep your scope tight and refer back to your agreed goals when considering changes.
5. Lack of user research
It’s vital to engage the people who will use the tool or experience the content during the scoping stage. Understanding audience and internal needs helps ensure your solution genuinely provides what is needed.
6. Rushing the scoping phase
Jumping into delivery without adequate planning can lead to costly mistakes. Take the time to bring people together, define your aims clearly, and build shared understanding before you begin.
Working on your own or in a very small organisation?
The principles in this article still apply if you’re a freelancer, artist, collective or small organisation. You may not need formal governance structures, project teams or extensive documentation, but taking time to plan, challenge assumptions and focus on user needs can help you make better decisions, reduce risk and achieve stronger outcomes from your digital project.
If you’re working independently or in a small organisation, replace formal working groups with a trusted peer, mentor, collaborator or member of your audience who can act as a sounding board. Use informal conversations to understand user needs and test assumptions before committing significant time or money to a solution. Keep your planning lightweight by creating a simple project overview that captures your objectives, budget, timeline, risks and measures of success.
The goal is not to make the process overly complex, but to create enough structure and challenge to make better decisions.
Good scoping helps you build a project that is achievable, strategic and grounded in real needs. Taking this time upfront sets you up for smoother delivery, stronger collaboration, and real impact, both now and in future phases of your digital development. Using a tool such as a project overview to scope out your digital project can be a good way to get your ideas down on paper and share them with others.
Need help with a digital project?
Start by reading the other articles in our Digital Projects series and have a look at the Digital Projects Workbook. For deeper conversations or to explore additional resources, speak to one of our digital specialists in person so that we can assess your specific needs and provide practical and tailored support to help you scope out a digital project that works for your organisation.
Book a free one-to-one session with a Tech Champion to support you in developing your digital project.
Beginner Managing Digital Projects
From new websites and CRM systems to digital asset management platforms, digital projects can help cultural organisations work more efficiently and better serve their audiences. This series of five articles offers practical guidance on planning, procuring, implementing and managing digital projects, alongside a downloadable workbook packed with templates and tools to support your journey.
Beginner Managing Change
This series of five articles has been produced to support people working in the creative and cultural sectors to deliver digital projects effectively. The articles are accompanied by a practical workbook to support the process.
Beginner Implementing a digital project
This series of five articles has been produced to support people working in the creative and cultural sectors to deliver digital projects effectively. The articles are accompanied by a practical workbook to support the process.