Saturday, December 7, 2013
Analyzing Scope Creep
"Scope Creep is defined as the tendency of a project to grow in scale and complexity as more individuals get involved. It also occurs as the details of the project are presented to the project owners who requested it, usually management, who then say, Can you also make it do this or that"(Milone, 2008). I can recall when I was asked to train a class of ten on a certain subject that I was very familiar with. To prepare to train the class I reviewed each individual assessment for the learners assigned to my class. This way I was aware of their strengths and weaknesses, and it makes me aware of how I should train the class material. I also prepared all of the material in segments pertaining to information I will present and also what I will assign to the learning coaches. At the last minute right before the class is scheduled to start the organization added additional subjects and systems to the material to train, and I was also assigned additional learning coaches that I did not select to work with as well because the class size grew tremendously. This presented issues because I now had to train unfamiliar information which made me implement time to train myself as well. I also had to review the new learning coaches and interview them for their strengths and weaknesses so that I would not give them something they could not handle, and all of these additional tasks were not completed efficiently in my opinion because I did not have the time to do so. Also certain material being presented was new and the organization wanted information throughout the class on the success of the material with the learners as well. Therefore there were so many additional hands in the class than what I was accustomed to. Because of this I scheduled a meeting to discuss the positives and negatives pertaining to the class and also to discuss my strengths and all aspects of what I can handle. This allowed me to persuade them to eliminate the extra hands and appearances of management from the classroom which could disrupt my schedule and process pertaining to the material and changes I made. If I were managing the class and changes I would have originally had a meeting to discuss what changes would be made and what should we expect, and also what may be needed from the trainer and timeframes pertaining to those changes instead of shooting out a quick message advising of those changes at the last minute.
References:
Milone, Tim. (June 21, 2008). Real world example of scope creep. In Tech Republic.
Retrieved 12/5/2013, from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-of-all-trades/real-world-
example-of-scope-creep
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Hi Ava,
ReplyDeleteThanks for a great post, with a real world scope creep example. Your example is similar to what I experienced as a consultant a few years back. I would communicate with a client (project owner) about the number of people to be trained only to find that on the day of training the number would either increase tremendously or different faces would show up to replace those I was expecting. The training was on the SAP (System Application Product) system which required that data preparation and login details be done in advance. The last minute changes often made avoiding scope creep rather impossible (Portny et al. 2008). The attendees would argue that they were informed by their responsible authorities that they needed to attend the training. Portny et al. 2008 propose that the project manager has to “require that changes be approved in writing by the client as well as by a representative of senior management” (p347). In this example it was not possible to get any approvals since the communication had initial been done with the manager who would not even be attending training and more often would not even be available on the phone.
Reference
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.
Ava,
ReplyDeleteWow- this was a classic case of scope creep. It was good that you were able to get some of the extras eliminated. I hope to work in the ID field and your post was certainly informative.
Hi Ava, that's crazy that the project manager did that to you but it's also common. I agree with you completely with calling a meeting and discussing the changes in the project. I think you handled the scope creep great. Great post!!
ReplyDeleteHi Ava!
ReplyDeleteGreat approach to handling scope creep. It probably also helped in saving your sanity...:)
Thank you.
Sandra G.
Great post. I am working with a client who has a tendency to annouce big changes at the last minute. I do not think they are aware about the amount of time required to make instructional material let alone change them.
ReplyDelete