Analyzing Scope Creep

In the field of project management, there is a common occurrence known as scope creep.  Portney, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, and Kramer (2008) define scope creep as the tendency to improve the project’s outcome as the project progresses.  The scope creep could come from the client as well as from the team members.  The problem with the scope creep is that most of the time it delays the project’s timeline, increases the number of resources, and/or the budget having a negative impact on the project’s overall outcomes.  Haughhey (2009) lists the most common causes why scope creep occurs:

• Poor Requirements Analysis.
• Not Involving Users Early Enough.
• Underestimating the Complexity of the Project.
• Lack of Change Control.
• Gold Plating

On the other hand, Maynard (2005) suggests that the project manager should avoid scope creep by creating contracts, communicating changes, and not overcommitting to what the client wants if you know it will not work. 

One good example that relates to scope creep is when I was asked to design, develop, and implement a language program for a technical college.  The project consisted in creating a 12-month program for adult students to learn English.  Some of the specifications of the design were that it could stand alone like other career programs and that it could bring many students quickly.  One problem was that this institution had a monthly entry and this program was one of the six programs they had running.  I told the client that there is a curricular sequence that needs to be followed; especially in language teaching and that the monthly entry would bring too many students too quickly affecting not only the budget and the resources, but also the quality of the program.  The client did not want to hear it because they wanted many students quickly.  The program started with 20 students and after a few months it grew to have 260 students.  This created a total chaos, for example:

·         They did not have enough room for classes.

·         They needed more teachers, but did not want spend money.

·         They needed more resources but did not want to spend money.

They began merging classes to have more space and this ruined the curricular sequence consequently affecting the quality of the program.  In the end, the students started dropping from the program and protesting, so the institution ended up closing the program to have more space for the career programs because these were more expensive.  In reality, they lost a lot of money because this was their biggest program, but they did not care for quality; only quantity. 

            In this case, the client did receive what was requested, but it was not successful because I failed to formalize the project’s processes and documents and although I had anticipated the possible problems that could happen, I did not communicate well these risks with my client.  My mistake was that I did not have the proper project management skills, forms, and documents from the beginning of the project.  If I had properly followed the principles of good project management such as being prepared with a project plan, scope, statement of work, schedule, timeline, risk management plan, change control system, contingency plan, communication plan, etc., the story would be different.  Other important elements that were missing in this case were the design of a monitoring and control system and communication between the client and myself.   If I had been more prepared, I probably would have had the choice of controlling the project from the beginning or not taken the project at all.  But like Dr. Budrovich said; “you can’t win them all”. 

References

Haughey, D.  (2009).  Stop scope creep running away with your project.  Project Smart.  Retrieved from http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/stop-scope-creep-running-away-with-your-project.html

Laureate Education, Inc.  (n.d.).  [Video Program].  Practitioner voices: You can’t win them all.  Dr. Petti Van Rekom.  Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_1340289_1%26url%3D

Maynard, W.  (2005).  Project management: Avoid work scope creep!  Enzine Articles.  Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com/?Project-Management---Avoid-Work-Scope-Creep!&id=79899

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M. & Kramer, B. E.  (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects.  New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.