Scope creep. These two words can turn a well-planned project into a mess. What started as clear project deliverables often grows into a never-ending list of changes. You miss deadlines, and your team feels overwhelmed.
With hybrid teams and high stakeholder expectations, staying on track is essential. But, without the right tools, requirements slip in unnoticed, and your teams end up working overtime just to catch up.
To help you stay in control, we’ve curated a list of top scope management tools. These tools help teams create a centralized project scope statement, prevent scope creep, and stay on track from start to finish. 🚀
- Top Scope Management Tools at a Glance
- How to Choose the Right Scope Management Tool
- The Best Tools for Managing Project Scope
- How we review software at ClickUp
- 1. ClickUp (Best for AI-powered scope management with agile support)
- 2. Jira (Best for Agile software project management)Â
- 3. Asana (Best for managing workflows and tracking tasks)
- 4. Smartsheet (Best for spreadsheet-style work management)
- 5. Wrike (Best for standardizing work intake)Â
- 6. Monday.com (Best for streamlining workflows and visibility)
- 7. Microsoft Project (Best for enterprise-level project planning)
- 8. Teamwork (Best for managing projects and reporting)
- 9. Basecamp (Best for managing projects and collaborating)
- 10. OpenProject (Best for managing complex projects)Â
- Keep Project Scope Creep in Check With ClickUp
What is scope creep?
Scope creep refers to the gradual, uncontrolled expansion of a project’s goals, tasks, or deliverables without corresponding adjustments to time, budget, or resources. It often occurs when new features or requests are added without going through a formal approval process. Managing project scope effectively and proactively keeps scope creep at bay.
Top Scope Management Tools at a Glance
Here’s a quick comparison of the top tools’ key features and pricing structures.
Tool name | Key features | Best for | Pricing* |
ClickUp | ClickUp Brain, AI Agents, team collaboration, templates, 15+ Custom Views, real-time dashboards, workflow automation | Startups to large enterprises looking for an all-in-one project and productivity platform | Free plan available; Customization available for enterprises |
Jira | Schedule view, scope table, filters, custom queries, task views, Atlassian AI | Tech teams, developers, and mid to large software companies that need Agile project management and issue tracking | Free plan available; Paid plans start from $8.60 per user/month |
Asana | Multiple views, Asana AI, labels and custom fields, task automation, reports | Small to mid-sized businesses and cross-functional teams looking for a work management and task coordination tool | Free plan available; Paid plans start from $13.49 per user/month |
Smartsheet | WBS, roll-up reports, critical path analysis, AI assistance, templates | Mid to large enterprises with structured, data-heavy processes for spreadsheet-style project and resource management | No free plan; Paid plans start from $12 per user/month |
Wrike | Automated alerts, approval workflows, Gantt charts, Kanban boards | Mid-sized teams looking for project and work management software with advanced reporting | Free plan available; Paid plans start from $10 per user/month |
Monday.com | Color-coded boards, Gantt charts, AI assistance, automation, flexible workflows | SMBs to enterprises looking for a visual project and workflow management platform | Free plan available; Paid plans start from $12 per user/month |
Microsoft Project | Task history, views, grids, Kanban boards, project health tracking, Copilot, Microsoft ecosystem | Enterprises and PMOs with certified project managers looking for an advanced project planning and scheduling tool | Free plan available; Paid plans start from $10 per user/month |
Teamwork | Customizable forms, privacy settings, approval workflows, time tracking, AI assistance | Agencies and client service teams that need a client and service-focused project management platform | Free plan available; Paid plans start from $13.99 per user/month |
Basecamp | Hill Charts, mission control, team communication tools, grouped to-do lists | Small teams, startups, and non-tech teams looking for a simple project collaboration tool | Free plan available; Paid plans start from $15 per user/month |
OpenProject | List view, EVA analysis, parent-child boards, AI assistance | Government agencies, nonprofits, and tech-savvy teams looking for open-source project management software | Free plan available; Paid plans start from $7.25 per user/month |
📚 Read More: What is Change Management? 3 Phases for a Smooth Transition
How to Choose the Right Scope Management Tool
The best project scope management tool must align with your project’s complexity and fit your organizational workflows while enabling effective scope management.
Here’s what it can do for you:
- Work breakdown structure: Helps create a work breakdown structure (WBS) to divide projects into smaller, manageable components, making it easier to assign and track deliverables
- Change and risk management: Supports built-in workflows for change requests and assesses risks before they affect your plans
- Real-time collaboration: Offers features such as comments, notifications, and document sharing, to keep your project team in sync
- Customizable workflows: Lets you shape the process to match your specific project needs, rather than forcing a rigid, one-size-fits-all approach
- Reports and dashboards: Provides advanced reporting and dashboards so you can track scope status and identify bottlenecks early
- Permissions and role management: Enables control over who can access or modify scope elements
📖 Read More: Learn how to create and manage a scope baseline in project management to keep your projects on track.Â
The Best Tools for Managing Project Scope
Below, we have compiled a list of the best scope management tools you can use:
How we review software at ClickUp
Our editorial team follows a transparent, research-backed, and vendor-neutral process, so you can trust that our recommendations are based on real product value.
Here’s a detailed rundown of how we review software at ClickUp.
1. ClickUp (Best for AI-powered scope management with agile support)
ClickUp is a feature-rich platform that helps teams plan and execute projects with ease and complete visibility.
With AI-powered task management and built-in automation, you can effectively manage scope, set clear expectations with project stakeholders, outline how changes will be handled, and ensure any adjustments undergo a proper review.
With ClickUp’s Project Management Software, teams can divide projects into manageable phases, tasks, subtasks, and sprints for structured planning and execution.
To control project scope effectively, you can add more details to each task using Custom Fields that fit your workflow and categorize project deliverables by priority or department.Â
Leverage AI for accurate tracking and control
The integrated AI assistant, ClickUp Brain, connects your tasks, documents, people, and knowledge in one place. It simplifies project scope management for project managers with:
- Instant answers to scope-related questions using AI-powered search and AI Assistants across your workspace
- Scope change detection by flagging new tasks or requirements that may impact the original scope
- Automated updates on project progress and scope changes to stakeholders
- Impact analysis to quickly assess how proposed changes affect timelines, resources, and deliverables
Simplify and standardize with customizable templates
ClickUp’s dedicated project scope templates provide a clear framework for defining project boundaries, deliverables, timelines, and responsibilities from the start. This sets expectations, keeps everyone on the same page, and aids collaboration.
For example, the ClickUp Scope of Work Template outlines the communication plan, change management process, budget details, and approval steps needed to ensure project success.
- Clearly define specific tasks, deliverables with their owners, and outcomes expected from the project to prevent any misalignment around scope
- Set down the timeline and key milestones, providing a clear roadmap and preventing the addition of new tasks later
- Call out any limitations related to resources, budget, etc., and what is not included in the scope
- Customize it with Custom Fields and custom statuses so you can track the project your way
In the same way, the ClickUp Scope Management Plan Template defines project goals during the planning phase and outlines the controls used to manage changes throughout the project’s lifecycle.
- Outline the problem the project aims to solve, the opportunities it presents, and the goals it seeks to achieve
- Define what’s in scope and what’s not to ensure everyone involved understands the project’s boundaries
- Share with key stakeholders for review and approval with a secure link
This document is a shared agreement to keep the project focused, on track, and free from surprises.
ClickUp best features
- Multiple views: Visualize tasks your way with 15+ Custom Views such as List, Board, Gantt, and Calendar for every workflow
- Real-time collaboration: Work together with teams and stakeholders to collectively plan and monitor projects using real-time collaboration tools like ClickUp Docs and whiteboards
- Contextual chat: Keep everybody aligned with conversations that happen right where the work is, with ClickUp Chat
- Goal tracking: Set clear project objectives in ClickUp Goals, break them into measurable targets, and track progress in real-time
- Reporting: Create custom reports that show everything from campaign performance to billable hours with ClickUp Dashboards
Want to eliminate confusion about priorities, progress, or who owns what? Watch this video to learn how to create a shareable dashboard that gives teams and clients a clear status snapshot without sending long update reports.
ClickUp limitations
- Advanced features or more complex workflows come with a learning curve
ClickUp pricing
ClickUp ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.7/5 (10,400+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (4,400+ reviews)
What are real users saying about ClickUp?
Here’s a G2 review:
📚 Also Read: How to Develop a Project Scope Checklist
2. Jira (Best for Agile software project management)
Jira is a scope management tool that helps teams plan, track, and manage simple task lists to complex Agile software development projects.
The scope views give you an overview of the work in your plan. For example, the Schedule View shows a visual roadmap of all tasks, while the Scope Table View works as your to-do list. You can view all information through epics, stories, and sub-tasks, making it easier to define what needs to be done and what can wait.
Filters and custom queries help adjust a project’s scope and monitor what’s in or out of scope at any time.
Jira best features
- Prioritize and manage the project backlog to ensure the team is working on the most important items
- Automate common workflows with Atlassian AI
- Track progress using methodologies such as Scrum, Kanban, or a hybrid model that fits your team’s workflow
- Manage task dependencies by understanding task order, identifying bottlenecks, and preventing delays
- Customize task views to track tasks and optimize workflows with deployment frequency and cycle time
- Generate detailed reports and dashboards to maintain visibility into the project’s status
Jira limitations
- Can be complex to set up and configure, especially for non-technical teams
- Filtering can be tricky, making it hard to find exactly what you want
Jira pricing
- Free
- Standard: $8.60 per user/month
- Premium: $17 per user/month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Jira ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.3/5 (6,600+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.4/5 (15,200+ reviews)
What are real users saying about JIRA?
Here’s a G2 review:
📚 Read More: Best Jira Alternatives & Competitors for Agile Teams
3. Asana (Best for managing workflows and tracking tasks)
Asana is a project management software that offers advanced scheduling tools that help you allocate resources, check action items, track progress, and manage projects.
With project templates and customizable fields, you can break down all details so everyone knows what’s in and out of scope. When you need to make changes, you can use task dependencies and built-in approval workflows to review and control them.
Track each change request, get sign-off, and audit effectively as part of managing scope creep.
Asana best features
- Divide work into manageable tasks with information about owners, due dates, and priorities
- Visualize work in multiple formats, such as lists, calendars, Gantt charts, or Kanban boards
- Communicate and collaborate with team members directly within tasks
- Add labels and custom fields to sort, filter, and create reports automatically
- Automate routine tasks and workflows to save time and reduce errors
- Leverage Asana AI to create status updates and identify project risks
Asana limitations
- Limited ability to search within specific fields, like comments or descriptions
Asana pricing
- Personal: $0
- Starter: $13.49 per user/month
- Advanced: $30.49 per user/month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
- Enterprise+: Custom pricing
Asana ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.4/5 (12,200+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (13,500+ reviews)
What are real users saying about Asana?
Here’s a G2 review:
📚 Read More: Best Asana Alternatives and Competitors
📮 ClickUp Insight: Think your to-do list is working? Think again. Our survey shows that 76% of professionals use their own prioritization system for task management. However, recent research confirms that 65% of workers tend to focus on easy wins over high-value tasks without effective prioritization.Â
ClickUp’s Task Priorities transform how you visualize and tackle complex projects, highlighting critical tasks easily. With ClickUp’s AI-powered workflows and custom priority flags, you’ll always know what to tackle first.
4. Smartsheet (Best for spreadsheet-style work management)
Smartsheet allows teams to clearly define the project scope by creating a detailed project plan with tasks, subtasks, dependencies, and deadlines laid out in a grid view.
Its library of ready-made project scope templates helps teams document project scope, deliverables, timelines, and exclusions in a structured format. Roll-up reports provide consolidated views of scope status, deliverable progress, and key metrics across multiple projects.
The tool also helps teams visualize dependencies and measure progress against the project baseline using Gantt charts and critical path analysis. This makes it easier to see how scope changes impact timelines or resource allocation.
Smartsheet best features
- Centralize project-related files and conversations by attaching them directly to tasks
- Get version control and row-level commenting for project documents, comments, and approval
- Automate processes and workflows to stay on top of changes and request approvals
- Use a dynamic view to filter specific data for others to view and edit
- Track progress and key metrics in real-time with customizable dashboards and reports
- Extract key information, generate formulas, and automate content creation with AI assistance
Smartsheet limitations
- Lacks built-in communication tools, and the mobile app has limited functionality
- The spreadsheet-like interface, while familiar, can become cumbersome for managing very large and complex projects
Smartsheet pricing
- Pro: $12 per user/month
- Business: $24 per user/month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
- Advanced work management: Custom pricing
Smartsheet ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.4/5 (19,000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (3400+ reviews)
What are real users saying about Smartsheet?
Here’s a G2 review:
📚 Read More: Best Smartsheet Alternatives & Competitors
5. Wrike (Best for standardizing work intake)
Wrike uses AI to improve your scope management plan by identifying potential risks, highlighting areas of improvement, and suggesting automation rules to ensure projects remain within scope.
Robust tracking tools such as Gantt charts and Kanban boards help teams visualize progress against the original scope baseline, making it simple to spot any unexpected changes or delays before they get out of hand.
Wrike’s custom request forms are handy for standardizing the intake of new work. This helps control scope by ensuring all new requests undergo a formal review and approval process before being added to the project.
Wrike best features
- Cross-tag teams to help them view tasks for their projects
- Collaborate with team members through task-specific comments and live editing
- Visualize project schedules and dependencies with interactive Gantt charts
- Log changes and create an auditable trail to ensure transparency
- Use AI to flag risks related to scope, such as delays and resource overload
Wrike limitations
- Mobile version lacks some functionality compared to the desktop app
- Can be more expensive for large teams than other Wrike alternatives
Wrike pricing
- Free: $0
- Team: $10 per user/month
- Business: $25 per user/month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
- Pinnacle: Custom pricing
Wrike ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.2/5 (4,000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.4/5 (2,000+ reviews)
What are real users saying about Wrike?
Here’s a G2 review:
📚 Read More: Top Change Management KPIs and Metrics to Track
6. Monday.com (Best for streamlining workflows and visibility)
Monday.com helps teams to define, document, and manage project scope with clarity by outlining project objectives, deliverables, exclusions, constraints, assumptions, stakeholder analysis, and timelines.
You can convert scope elements into customizable boards, allowing teams to assign owners, set due dates, track status, and visualize progress using multiple views, including Kanban, Gantt, and Timeline.
Customizable dashboards pull information from multiple project boards into a single, high-level view, allowing managers to monitor progress, track KPIs, and spot potential scope creep and budget overruns before they become an issue.
It helps prevent gold plating by ensuring all work strictly aligns with the documented project scope and needs formal approval for any changes or additions.
Monday.com best features
- Visualize schedules and identify key milestones using Gantt charts
- Define problems, set goals, and visualize them using project plan templates
- Customize everything easily, from color-coded boards to flexible workflows
- Automate routine tasks and notifications to streamline workflows and communication
- Collaborate by adding comments, files, and updates directly within the context of each task
- Automate tasks and create tasks and workflows using AI assistance
Monday.com limitations
- Some features need advanced setup to work efficiently, which can slow down onboarding new collaborators
Monday.com pricing
- Free (up to 2 users)
- Basic: $12 per user/month
- Standard: $14 per user/month
- Pro: $24 per user/month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Monday.com ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.7/5 (13,000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (5,000+ reviews)
What are real users saying about Monday.com?
Here’s a G2 review:
📚 Read More: Best monday.com Alternatives & Competitors
7. Microsoft Project (Best for enterprise-level project planning)
Microsoft Project is a planning software that provides a centralized workspace for managing projects, tasks, and to-do lists across Microsoft 365 apps. It offers features such as agile sprint planning, custom fields, and task history.
Microsoft Project’s core strength in scope management lies in its rigorous planning and tracking capabilities. Once the initial plan (the scope baseline) is set, any deviation can be easily identified by comparing current progress against it.
Moreover, Copilot’s AI can help generate project plans, identify cost overruns and risks, draft status reports, and suggest goals based on the scope of a project.
The tool has an intuitive layout with views like My Day, My Tasks, and My Plans, so you always know what to focus on next. You can map out projects with views like Gantt charts, grids, and Kanban boards.
Microsoft Project best features
- Develop a detailed Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) to meticulously define scope
- Manage complex task dependencies and identify the critical path for the project
- Use templates to create plans and choose views such as lists, boards, and timelines
- See progress, project budget, and resource allocation with real-time dashboards and reports
- Create buckets and tasks based on your planning goals
- Generate in-depth, customizable reports to analyze project performance and health
- Integrate natively with other Microsoft applications like Teams and Power BI for enhanced collaboration and reporting
Microsoft Project limitations
- Limited customization options, lack of flexibility, and potential difficulties in integrating with other systems
- The software is expensive, which can be a barrier for smaller organizations or teams
Microsoft Project pricing
- Microsoft Planner: Free
- Planner Plan 1: $10 per user/month
- Planner and Project Plan 3: $30 per user/month
- Planner and Project Plan 5: $55 per user/month
Microsoft Project ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.0/5 (1,000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.4/5 (2,000+ reviews)
What are real users saying about Microsoft Project?
Here’s a G2 review:
📚 Read More: Best Microsoft Project Alternatives for 2025 (Free & Paid)
8. Teamwork (Best for managing projects and reporting)
Teamwork is a comprehensive project management platform built to handle client work, making it highly suitable for managing project scope.
It simplifies the scope management process by allowing you to define goals and checkpoints. You can also set milestones, track project progress, and offer clients real-time visibility at every project stage.
By using customizable forms, you can collect requests and feedback, which are automatically converted into actionable tasks. With flexible permissions and privacy settings, teams can allow clients to collaborate directly while you maintain control over what they see.
Teamwork AI helps teams synthesize information, get quick insights into capacity, and autofill expense logs.
Teamwork best features
- View all tasks to get a picture of your team’s workload
- Track time accurately at the task level to monitor effort and budget
- Standardize project setup with reusable project and task list templates
- Use collapsible sections to zoom in or out from high-level projects to detailed subtasks
- Streamline client review and approval by managing everything from initial drafts and revisions to final sign-off in one place
Teamwork limitations
- Some features are unavailable or difficult to navigate in the mobile app as compared to the desktop version
- Performance can sometimes slow down when managing a large number of concurrent projects
Teamwork pricing
- Free
- Deliver: $13.99 per user/month
- Grow: $25.99 per user/month
- Scale: $69.99 per user/month
- Enterprise+: Custom pricing
Teamwork ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.4/5 (1,000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (900+ reviews)
What are real users saying about Teamwork?
Here’s a G2 review:
📚 Read More: Best Teamwork Alternatives and Competitors
9. Basecamp (Best for managing projects and collaborating)
Basecamp is a project management and team communication tool known for its simplicity. It breaks down project scopes into to-do lists so everyone knows what tasks need to be done and what’s part of the project.
The platform’s clear, chronological layout and communication tools are assets for scope management. The Message Board centralizes project-wide announcements and scope discussions, while To-Do Lists allow for the clear assignment and tracking of specific deliverables. The Schedule keeps all key dates and deadlines visible to everyone.
Basecamp best features
- Get an overview of all to-dos in one place to get a complete picture of your project
- Schedule important dates, milestones, and deadlines for full team visibility
- Automate recurring check-in questions to keep the team aligned on progress
- Use Hill Charts, Lineup, and Mission Control to track progress visually
- Use grouped to-do lists to zoom in on specific tasks or zoom out for a bigger view
Basecamp limitations
- It gets tricky to keep track of everything when you’re juggling between different cards and projects
- Lacks advanced project management features like Gantt charts, time tracking, and detailed reporting, which can be critical for complex projects
Basecamp pricing
- Personal: Free
- Plus: $15 per user/month
- Pro Unlimited: $299 per month (billed annually)
Basecamp ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.1/5 (5,000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.3/5 (14,000+ reviews)
What are real users saying about Basecamp?
Here’s a G2 review:
📚 Read More: Top Basecamp Alternatives
10. OpenProject (Best for managing complex projects)
OpenProject is an open-source project management software that helps teams stay organized and in control throughout the project lifecycle. You can easily collect ideas and define your project’s scope and deliverables. Further, you can break them down into structured work packages using a list view.
Teams can track the time and cost spent on each work package, comparing it against the initial budget to prevent scope creep and ensure financial control. Any changes to the scope can be formally managed through workflows and status updates.
Additionally, EVA (Earned Value Analysis) enables you to monitor progress against actual time and costs.
OpenProject best features
- Track tasks in granular detail with descriptions, priorities, statuses, and assignees
- Use parent-child boards to build and visualize WBS structure for your projects
- Plan and visualize timelines, dependencies, and critical paths with Gantt charts
- Share project roadmap with stakeholders, seek feedback, and create an actionable plan
- Generate meeting agendas and summaries with an AI assistant to capture key decisions
OpenProject limitations
- Being an open-source tool, the self-hosted version requires significant technical expertise to install, configure, and maintain
- The user interface, while powerful, is not as modern or intuitive as some of its commercial competitors
OpenProject pricing
- Community: Free
- Cloud Basic: $7.25 per user/month (billed annually)
- Cloud Professional: $13.50 per user/month (billed annually)
- Cloud Premium: $19.50 per user/month (billed annually)
- Cloud Corporate: Custom pricing
OpenProject ratings and reviews
- G2: 3.8/5 (20+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (180+ reviews)
What are real users saying about OpenProject?
Here’s a G2 review:
📚 Read More: Strategies to Develop a Clear Stakeholder Management Plan
Keep Project Scope Creep in Check With ClickUp
A clear scope control shapes your project’s journey. By managing project scope carefully, you’re not only preventing chaos but making room to deliver exactly what’s needed, on schedule.
With ClickUp, you can spot scope issues early, pivot, and keep your project moving smoothly. The AI-powered platform integrates all your project tasks, documents, conversations, and reports in one shared workspace, making project scope management stress-free for teams.
Ready to convert scope creep into scope control? Sign up on ClickUp for free.