Barbarians at the Gate!

Scope creep has to be one of the most insidious problems that plague PMs. Even when the planning stages are robust and there is excellent documentation of requirements, problems still occur. One solution is to prepare for scope creep as you would a war. A little rusty in your battle planning skills? Just remember that to win, you must put up adequate defenses and sharpen your weapons.

Defensive Strategies
Put up a Great Wall to prevent incursions by barbarians wielding new requests and requirements. First, build the foundation by getting requirements documented and signed off by stakeholders. The requirements must be clear enough to eliminate "expanding expectations" later. Use all the experience you can muster to anticipate areas of confusion and clarify requirements. Larger projects may have a phased approach to getting details in requirements, allowing you more time to devote to this critical activity.

Reinforce your defenses against scope creep by adding into documentation what is NOT required. It is possible at this early planning stage to get stakeholders to agree on whole categories of requirements that will not be included. in the project. ("Do you mean this? No? Okay, we'll make a note of that.") You may even want to consider having a requirements definition team brainstorm a list of possibilities, then document those requirements that are in …