Free Essay: Scope Creep

Although Changes in projects are always inevitable, scope creep can be a dreaded thing that can happen to a project. It can lead to decreasing satisfaction and even a waste of money. The changes in features or functionality to a new product or work that have not been approved or authorized is called scope creep (Larson, 2009). There are different ways scope creep can occur. These include;

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Poorly Defined Scope

When your team and stakeholders are not clear on the requirements and deliverables of the project, the whole group is confused. With an unclear work breakdown structure, managers will receive recommendations from all over. This confusion may lead to scope creep.

Not Able to Involve Users Early Enough

It is essential to involve users in the project at all phases. Project managers think they know what users want is a big mistake that can lead to scope creep.

Poor Requirement Analysis

Adequate time should be spent on gathering business requirements, failure to which can lead to increased costs, and longer durations when requirements emerge, and increase the cost (Hoylandskjaer, 2018).

A Tendency to Over Deliver

Going beyond a client's demand might be a risk in practice. It might lead to miss deadlines, overworking staff, and even overlooking some of the clients' initial recommendations ( Farok & Garcia,2016).

In mitigating the above scope creep, I plan to;

Document the Project.

I will talk to stakeholders to work on what they want from the project and capture all the requirements in a document. By this, I will be fully aware of what clients want.

Create a Clear Project Schedule.

A clear project schedule should show all the requirements and how the management intends to achieve them in the form of tasks and activities. With this, I can cross-reference my schedule against my obligations to ensure I have not forgotten anything.

Involve and Verify the Scope with the Stakeholders.

It is essential to check that the requirements are appropriately understood. I will share the required documentation with them, the project schedule to ensure that all the elements they expected to see are scheduled in the task list.

Set Up a Change Control Process

Because changes are expected, I will set up a change control system that will allow someone suggests a change; it is reviewed, rejected, or approved. If recommended, I will incorporate it into the project plan.

References

Farok, G., & Garcia, J. (2016). Scope creep monitors the level of satisfaction, cost of business, and slippery slope relationships among stakeholders, project managers, sponsors, and PMOs to execute the project completion report. Journal of International Association of Advanced Technology and Science (JIAATS), 2(2), 15-23.

https://images.creativetemplate.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Student-Project-Scope-Template.pdf

Hoylandskjaer, M. (2018). Managerial Perceptions of Scope Creep in Projects: A Multiple-Case Study.

http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1287334&dswid=-6362

Larson, R., & Larson, E. (2009). Top five causes of scope creep... and what to do about them. In PMI Global Congress.

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Top+five+causes+of+scope+creep+...+and+what+to+do+about+them&btnG