The Price of Right

  Communications Management   Stakeholder Management   ProjectsAtWork  

We pay a steep toll when it becomes more important to be right than to exercise tact. But when it comes to working relationships, harmony, not righteousness, is the higher purpose. Perhaps no area of project management is more contentious than scope change. Documentation is a good friend.

When I teach project management and discuss scope creep, I usually tell a story about one of my first projects. I really wanted to get along with my customer.I was not well versed in all of the project management bodies of knowledge. I probably did not know the term scope creep. If the customer asked for something extra, well, I would just ask the team to go right ahead. I thought this was great customer service.

So let’s jump ahead to the end of the project. We came in about three weeks late. I realize now that given the changes I agreed to, this was a minor miracle.In a wrap up meeting, I was asked ‘Why were you late?’ I replied that we had accommodated changes to the original requirements and that took more time. I knew my customer, my buddy and partner would stand by me.

Wrong! He indicated that he did not know about any changes. As far as he was concerned the product delivered was exactly per the original requirements. We were just late, because the IT department is always late.

Boy was I ticked! I wanted to scream out ‘He is lying!’ …

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