Analyzing Scope Creep

First, we should define what the "Scope" of an Instructional Design Project is. The scope of a project refers to the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) of the project. What are the major things that have to be done? The who, when, where, what and why of the project. Next, these items must be broken down into smaller manageable parts (Laureate Ed., Inc., n.d.).

Scope creep in project management refers to uncontrolled changes or continuous growth in a project's scope (Wikipedia, n.d.). Typically, the scope increase consists of either new products or new features of already approved product designs, without corresponding increases in resources, schedule, or budget. As a result, the project team risks drifting away from its original purpose and scope into unplanned additions/changes. Accordingly, scope creep can result in a project team overrunning its original schedule, budget or any other WBS activity. Scope Creep is not necessarily a negative in a project, it can sometimes be beneficial. The best way for a Project Manager (PM) to handle Scope Creep is to set up a Change Control System. The purpose of this system is to: review the change, identify the impacts of the change, translate the impact into the performance, evaluate the advantages, or disadvantages, communicate the changes to concerned staff, and ensure the changes are implemented (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, and  Kramer, 2008).  If the budget and schedule are increased along with the scope, the change is usually considered an acceptable addition to the project, and the term “Scope Creep” is not used.

Looking back, a few years ago, before attending Walden University and learning about Project Management, I experienced Scope Creep in a group project at work. One of my duties was to serve on the Staff Development Team. One of the team's assignments was to figure out a way to effectively handle unruly customers who visited our government facility for services. Once management approved of our suggestion, we were to develop a training for all staff employees, including supervisors and management.  

The Staff Development Team was granted an amount of training dollars that would handle all of  the Conflict Resolution Training needs. Originally, we planned on hiring an expert from law enforcement who would serve as SME in our training to handle the public. Yes, sometimes the situations became dangerous enough that we could have used this type of training. The team planned all the activities, set the date, sent out the memos and a pre-survey for the staff to complete. 

About two weeks before the training was to take place, our site manager told us that leadership had to withdraw monies from our annual training budget. We could not spend the amount of money on our Conflict Resolution training as originally planned. We were shocked. Of course, we considered ourselves professionals and did not want to look ineffective in front of the other staff members.  So, we cancelled the SME that was scheduled, and decided to conduct the training ourselves to save money. Much research was conducted, and plenty of overtime was volunteered to design and develop the staff training. The team successfully facilitated the staff training and received many compliments and high evaluations. Out of this training, it was decided that we should have a Security Guard who sat at the door during customer sign in.

Scope Creep is common in the workplace, where uncontrolled changes affect the schedule, budget, resources, or any other activities of a planned project. Scope Creep is inevitable during a project's completion. The type of Scope Creep that happened to my Staff Development Team was out of our control.

When negotiating the planning phase of the project, extra time and money should be built in if possible. It is better to deliver the project earlier than the client expects, rather than to be late. It is important to keep the project moving toward completion (Greer, 2010).  To handle other  types of Scope Creep, repeatedly check the WBS to refer to the project’s goals and boundaries. Keep a clear picture of what the desired results should be at different points relative to deliverables, schedule, costs, and quality (Greer, 2010).

Finally, don't forget to formally close out all activities and sign off on deliverables. Make special notations of how activities were handled from Scope Creep and any lessons learned from modifications (Greer, 2010). File all closeout activities with the official project in case they can be used for future projects.

References:

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

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (n.d). Defining the scope of an ID project).  In EDUC 6145 Project Management in Education and Training. Baltimore, MD: Simonson, M. and Saba.

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.

Wikipedia. Project Management. (n.d.). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_management