Question

A senior manager has asked you to propose how the firm should look for and control “scope creep” as they believe it has been a major source of project cost overruns and defects. Write an executive report summarizing the various kinds of scope creep, the issues scope creep causes, and strategies and tactics that might be considered to deal with it.

Answer 1

Scope creep is reffered as continues, uncontrolled growth and changes in project scope. Such sudden changes in scope often results in project cost overruns and defects. Some common reasons for scope creep are

1) Lack of proper identification of project objectives.

2) Lack of knowledge for execution of project or poor project manager

3) Poor change control and road map for project.

4) Poor communication with parties regarding scope of work and expectations from each other.

5) Customers trying to get extra work done

Mainly there are two types of scope creeps, business and technology. In business scope creeps sometimes business requirements are vague and not well defined, improper management of use expectations leads to scope creep later on in project. Underestimating complexity of project steps and problems associated with it and not involving end users or clients during project scope defining and planning stage often leads to scope creep.

In some cases inadequate knowledge about technology, its use, applicability results in scope creep. Clients sometimes are not able to clearly explain their requirements and changes it in later stage. End users not familiar with new technology often face issues in begining and want changes to avoid new challenges, extended handover and training time also leads to scope creeps. In technology scope creep clients sometimes want additional technological features which were not demanded in initial planning stage of project, this is called as ''technical gold plating".

Issues Due to Scope Creep: Changing definition of project without increase in budget of project adds sudden financial burden, similarly such sudden changes lead to shortage of resources and time, this results in missed deadlines and cost overruns. Scope creep reduces or eliminates project margin, missed deadlines can trigger penalties, causes loss of reputation.

Strategies to deal with scope creep:

1) Get involvement of clients or end users early in project, understand their expectations throughly.

2) Make proper project contract with detailing of scope of project, deliverables control over changes in scope, keep term of revising cost and project deadline if any such change in scope.

3) Gather all relevant information regarding project scope and analyse it in initial stage of project. Brainstorm all tasks needed to complete the project, their resources requiremet and time frames.

4) Make Change Control Board (CCB) team to evaluate risks of implementing changes and implement 6 steps formal change management procedure to handle change control or any deviations from initial set requirements. i.e.

• Record
• Assess
• Plan
• Build
• Implement
• Close

5) Be clear in communications, build an ability to refuse changes than can have major impact on feasibility and quality of project with proper justification, if client still wants to continue with changes revise costing and deadlines in project contract if it is giving major impacts.

6) In extreme cases, stop the project so that new additional requirements can be scoped and integrated rather than tacked on, or continue with initially defined scope by proper consultation with client and give them alternate solution if any.