Analyzing Scope Creep

 

“You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage—pleasantly, smilingly, non-apologetically, to say ‘no’ to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger ‘yes’ burning inside. The enemy of the ‘best’ is often the ‘good.’” – Stephen Covey.

The Project

I worked at a school that conducted Allied Health Courses using the tradition face-to-face method. The school decided to convert the face-to-face Home Health Aide (HHA) class to the online format. Since HHA had only 20 contact hours, the administration assumed it would be easier to convert it to an online class. The management selected the Administrator to be the PM. The administrator identified and selected a project team that included the SME and the technical Designers. The SME was to provide the material and the technical design team would re-purpose the material to address the issues relevant to the online medium. The project was scheduled to be completed in two months.

The Scope Creep

Greer (2010) identified scope creep as those seemingly reasonable requests for “little add-ons” or enhancements by stakeholders, which eventually get the project budget and schedule to be blown out, and eventually making the whole project team to be blamed. In the instant case, the scope started changing when the SME had to leave the project due to personal issues. The new SME came with all new ideas and concerns. She wanted to introduce video sections that had not originally been included in the initial plan or budget. She also wanted to include other aspects of the curricular such as CPR that was not part of the original scope. Having come from an organization that had a functioning HHA online, she wanted to make our online HHA class to take the same format and design of her previous engagement.

Project Creep Management

The stakeholders did not address this scope creep very well. Instead of reviewing the effects and the impact this scope changes would have on the project, the Project Manager let the SME have a free hand in the new process. Consequently, the budget almost doubled, and the timeline exceeded the initial plan. Several project members who had time pressure could not be available in the new expanded project, the finance office did not have the money to pay for some of the new activities, and the project team all but collapsed. The project was an utter failure. We did not succeed and we abandoned the project without the team producing anything tangible despite the costs and time spent.

This project had many flaws. 

There was no written plan or even a project charter. The lack of the project charter left the project open to different interpretation of scope by different stakeholders. The Project Manager was also very weak. Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, and Kramer, (2008) avers that a successful Project Manager require targeted skills and techniques to steer the project to successful completion. Our Project Manager Influence and control over the overall project was weak. He adopted a laissez faire approach to project management. To ensure successful completion I would recommend greater scope control and a clear communication of the project milestones and deliverables. Dr. Harold Stolovich (n.d) recommends that the Project Manager should let any person introducing a change of scope know that though you value their idea, the change cannot be accommodated right away. He also recommends a use of a change of scope document. This would have made the organization achieve success in the project.

The other key issue I would address would be the key assumptions project members had for the project. The tacit assumptions were that the entire team would be available for the life of the project. There was also an assumption that the project had an unlimited budget and the aim was to develop the best online HHA course. These assumptions were not grounded on facts and became a major handicap during the implementation.

I would have revised and clarified the project purpose, developed a project charter and have it approved by the management and have any change no matter how innocuous be accompanied by the change of scope document that would outline the impact of the change on the schedule and budget of the project.

References

Greer, M. (2010). The Project Management Minimalist:Just Enough PM to Rock Your Projects! Baltimore, MD: Laureate Education Ed.

Portny, S., Mantel, S., Meredith, J., Shafer, S., Sutton, M., & Kramer, B. (2008). Project Management - Planning Scheduling and Controlling Projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Stolovich, H. (Writer), & Laureate Educational Inc, (Director). (n.d.). Project Management Concerns: Scope Creep [Motion Picture].