Scope Creep

In a professional context, I have become skilled at handling scope creep through using a change control process much like the one described by Portny et al (2008).  This process involves reviewing changes, identifying, outlining and communicating impacts and then using a change of scope document if necessary to increase time and budget accordingly.

If my Mother had done a little more saying "No",
I wouldn't have ended up with this stupid bow on my head...

Where I regularly fall short in managing scope creep is with personal projects.  There, I fall into the trap that Vince Budrovich (n.d.) talks about of not wanting to say no.  A prime example of this would be my daughter's first Christmas (seven years ago).  I wanted both sides of our family to be there and share this event with our daughter.  Sounds simple enough right...?  I grossly underestimated the initial scope of this project and accepted every scope change that came along without question - all because I didn't want to upset anyone.  What went originally from being one dinner, turned into a Christmas Eve buffet, a Christmas Morning Brunch, Christmas Dinner and Boxing Day Breakfast (all done around the feeding schedule of a 4 month old infant).  Two very (understatement) families participated, with very different traditions and expectations and I tried to accommodate all of them.  The scope was not managed well, and I paid the price for it through budget overruns, schedule crunches and unmet expectations.  While there may have been some temporary discomfort at saying "no", it is unlikely that it would have been worse than the exhaustion and upset caused by doing too much in too short of a time frame.  We have reduced the scope of Christmas since, and now I actually get to see my children open their gifts.  There are some members of the family who do not attend Christmas at our house because we do not meet their expectations now - but that is their problem and we have chosen not to make it ours.

A powerful no is one of the most important tools that a Project Manager has when it comes to dealing with scope creep.  Our second most powerful tool is a change control process.  However, if the project is not clearly defined up front (as was the case with our daughter's first Christmas), the Project Manager can expect a lot of sleepless nights, extra work and a budget that spirals out of control.

References:

Budrovich, V. (n.d.) “Practitioner Voices: Strategies for Working with Stakeholders” [Video].

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. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.