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To define project scope and acceptance criteria, you restate the user request as a problem statement, capture constraints, and lock success metrics. This produces a ready-to-use plan artifact to guide downstream design and implementation.

A problem statement is a clear summary of the issue a project aims to solve for stakeholders. Defining it during early planning reduces team misalignment and minimizes rework before design or implementation begins.

Prepare a plan artifact for handoff by documenting the problem statement, scope, acceptance criteria, and open questions. This ready-to-use output ensures execution teams have clear directives for the next implementation phase.

You need to lock scope and constraints during the DEFINE stage of early planning. Finalizing these elements before ideation prevents misalignment and ensures all stakeholders agree on the project boundaries.

The best way to capture open questions is to log them alongside the problem statement and success criteria in a structured plan artifact. This tracks unresolved constraints for the team to address during implementation handoff.

Yes, you can use this approach for stakeholder alignment without a full design phase. It applies to early ideation when a problem statement and success criteria must be locked prior to committing to design or implementation.