Project Scope: All the work needed to deliver a product, service, or result as defined in product scope.

Requirement: A condition or capability that is required to be present in a product, service or result to satisfy a contract or other formally imposed specification. This specifies what user wants to see in the final product

My take on it

Requirements lists the things stakeholders are expecting to be delivered as the project

Project Scope is a subset of requirements containing those requirements which have passed the litmus test of Project Charter and other approvals within project governance

Requirements 

The requirement is the expectancy of project stakeholders on project results. According to the definition given by PMI, it refers to the procedure of determining, documenting, and managing stakeholders’ needs to meet the ultimate project objectives.

These are capabilities that a project must meet to satisfy users’ needs. These needs come from a variety of sources such as compliance with a standard or legal regulation, market requirements, competitions, and resolving business issues.

It is collected through the Collect Requirements process of Project Scope Management. These are documented in the Requirement log i.e Requirement Traceability Matrix

There are different types of requirements;

1. Business requirements
2. Stakeholder Requirements
3. Solution Requirements
   • Functional Requirement
   • Non Functional Requirement
4. Transitory Requirement
5. Quality Requirement

Project Scope

Scope in project management comprises information needed to initiate a project. It makes sure the features of the project successfully meet the stakeholders’ requirements. It defines what is IN the project and what is NOT in the project

The project scope refers to the work required in delivering products, services and outcomes with quantified features and operations. It has two components;

Scope: The extent of what a project will produce (product scope) and the work needed to produce it (project scope).  It is the sum of the products, services, and results produced in a project. It is often documented using a scope statement and a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), which are approved by the project sponsor.

It is defined in Define Scope and Define WBS Planning processes of Project Scope Management

Comparison

• The project scope is for the team to deliver i.e. identifies the list of activities/tasks that need to be done in order to fulfil the requirements.
• Requirements are details of scope, and they are defined and refined throughout the project Initiation and planning phase. Requirements are defined by the customer.

A challenge with these two is that on a common day of a project, they largely mean the same and many uses them interchangeably.

An Example

The Requirements “I need to get to work faster. I need more exercise. I need to be safe.” are customer requirements.

The solution is a bicycle as it meets all of the requirements.

The scope may be:
* Procurement of a bicycle and some customizations such as a helmet and reflectors for safety.
* Customer ‘training’ delivery on product use and safety.

The work/tasks to achieve the project (using verbs to show action) is to procure the bike, ship the bike, assemble the bike, add the customizations and test the bike, deliver to the final product to the customer, deliver training, ensure the customer knows how to be safe by providing a map of safe bicycle routes for travel (process)

Further Readings

• Scope Creep vs Gold Plating
• Product Scope vs Project Scope
• Scope vs Requirement @ projectmanagement.com