Dan Loveland ’14, IT442, Bryant University
April 7, 2014
Project management has a lot in common with taking a road trip from New York to Los Angeles for a big Hollywood event. While this may seem like a stretch, hear me out. You may be surprised at the similarities. I will use this analogy to help you visualize one of the most important issues in project management: scope creep.
What is Scope Creep?
Both projects and long road trips require extensive planning and goal setting before they begin, and not meeting these goals results in undesirable consequences. For example, if you only have $500 to spend on gas, food, and hotels and need to get to your event in exactly four days, it would be unwise to decide to take major detours along the way which deviate from your planned route. In the project management world, these “detours” are referred to as scope creep.
When a project’s work agenda, or scope, is initially established, the total project cost and timeframe are planned in relation to the work provided. When team members or stakeholders try to change the planned work of the project in a way that impacts time and cost goals, scope creep can occur. A project manager often needs to operate as a “scope cop” in order to keep their project within the established constraints (Knight, 2013). While there are many ways that a project manager can fight scope creep, I will mention some of the most common and effective measures.
Keep Your Team Focused on the Task at Hand
In order to minimize the chance of being late for your event or running out of money, you should be ready to ward off “backseat drivers”, or passengers who might make a sudden plea to stop somewhere hundreds of miles north or south of your current location. While experiencing a new city or landmark would be nice, taking an unplanned detour would likely result in your group missing the big event. Clearly, keeping all passengers on the same page regarding stops and current progress is very important. Similarly, a project manager needs to keep their team members focused on the project progress in relation to time and cost. This is possible through utilizing kick off meetings and regular check-ins with project team members to keep them focused on deliverables and keeping them within scope (Ruriani, 2003).
Maintain a Schedule
Setting objectives for your journey is a key element when planning a trip across the country. Objectives, such as arriving at Chicago by the end of the first day of travel, will help you to stay on pace and avoid being late to your event. In project management, using tools such as Gantt charts and milestone tracking will help you to avoid falling behind schedule and discourage adding new features or goals to the project which will clearly throw off your completion date (Doll, 2001).
Get Approval from the Sponsor
It would not make sense to plan your road trip before knowing the essential details relating to the event. Before starting the trip, you will want to double check the time, location, and required attire with the host of the event. Without confirmation, you could potentially have to out of the way to get the right attire during the trip which could set you off schedule. As a project manager, it’s important to come to a concrete agreement with the client or project sponsor regarding exactly what will be accomplished in the project to avoid making the customer unhappy. Keep the sponsor involved in the process as you accomplish milestones to bring them to conclusion. Get their approval before moving on to ensure that you did exactly what was requested and to avoid pressure for alteration before the project is complete (Ruriani, 2003).
Is Scope Creep Always A Bad Thing?
Sometimes it is okay to take a detour to make your trip more interesting, provided that you don’t go too far out of the way. In agile project management, scope focuses more on the needs of the client as the project evolves rather than strictly sticking with the initial planned scope (Yatzek, 2012). As long as the changes do not conflict with work you have already done or replace smaller tasks with larger ones, changing the scope can actually be very beneficial.
Project management is a lot like a taking a road trip, and controlling scope creep is vital to success. Don’t let it drive you off the road.