Find natural boundaries
Split work around coherent user flows, system parts, or outcomes. A scope should be large enough to have its own uncertainty and small enough to be managed.
Avoid task decomposition
Task lists are useful for execution but poor project status units. Scopes retain the problem context that teams need to make trade-offs.
Use scopes on the hill
Put each scope on a Hillchart and move it as understanding changes. When a scope needs intervention, use at-risk, needs-decision, or circuit-breaker signals.