How to control the scope creep

 

Scope creep is the bane of many project managers. It can impact the timeline, cost and quality of a project as well as the morale of the team. In software development, scope creep is a leading cause for project failures. Project managers have to get a handle on the scope of a project from day one, to prevent it from spinning out of control.

Scope creep refers to uncontrolled changes which causes the scope of a project to grow continuously. The only way to prevent this from happening is to maintain constant vigilance from the start of the project to manage and control all changes throughout its lifetime. For an IT service provider, this is especially important with fixed priced contracts where the costs have to be tightly controlled. For an organization that is implementing a new system, scope creep can impact business critical timelines and cause customer dissatisfaction.

Project managers should keep in mind that scope creep is inevitable in any project and preventing it altogether is not realistic. The goal of a project manager should be to control and manage the changes systematically and not let it get out of hand. Control the scope before the scope controls you. Be aware of the all changes proposed by the client, the stakeholders or the team. Ensure that impact analysis is done even for the smallest change, identify the effort, factor in the financials, follow the change management approval process and update the plan.

Scope creep is a popular topic in project management and there is a lot of content dealing with the subject. Following are some of the articles that I came across which offer useful tips on how to prevent scope creep. If you are looking for methods or best practices on how to manage the project scope, I encourage you to read through these.

1. Taming the scope creep by Brett Harned
2. How to Manage Scope Creep—and Even Prevent It From Happening by Tim Clark
3. 5 Steps to Preventing Scope Creep (and Still Keeping Your Clients Happy) by Tom Ewer
4. 4 Ways to Prevent Scope Creep from Base36
5. 7 Proven Ways To Control Project Scope Creep from Project-Skills
6. Trapped in Scope Creep: How a Contractor Can Avoid Common Mistakes in Fixed-Price Externalized IT Projects by Dominika Chambon

To summarize, here are my key takeaways from these sources.

• Have a well defined scope of work. The agreement should be written clearly. Ensure that all parties understand what is and isn't included in the scope.
• Do your due diligence at the start of the project. Read and understand the scope, create a plan based on that scope and review it with your team and your clients.
• Understand the project objectives and the requirements. Know the deliverables and their functionality and what the client wants to achieve. This will help you to spot unplanned changes that may pop-up.
• Baseline the first version of the plan and use it to present your case for more time or budget when the scope starts to increase.
• Make the requirements very explicit. Go into the details to ensure there is no ambiguity.
• Keep track of all the changes religiously and document everything. Make sure all the relevant artifacts are updated with version control in place. 
• Do the impact analysis for each and every change and discuss the impact to timelines and budget. The conversations will help everyone to understand what is affected.
• Have a well defined change control process and communicate it to the team, stakeholders and clients. Make sure that the changes go through the required approvals so that everyone agrees. The change control board should include key members from all disciplines.
• Don't be afraid to say 'no' if the scope changes are unreasonable. Be wary of changes to the critical path. Discuss the risks and issues openly.
• The customer is not always right. Don't be a passive service provider. Collaborate with the client to establish what they want to achieve and use your expertise and perspectives to guide the client. Question the changes that are requested to make them think critically. Ask how it contributes to the overall objective.
• Expect scope creep to happen and include contingencies in the effort and pricing. This will be an insurance policy. Clients don't always know what they want and requirements will change during the elaboration and review.
• Define a clear sign-off process and follow through on it. Make sure that the client understands the process,
• Have a flexible design that can accommodate changes. This will help to reduce the effort and cost required to change or enhance the system.
• Communicate often and don't worry about over communicating. Make sure that the changes and resulting impact are communicated and understood by all parties. 

If managed appropriately, scope changes can be a positive and they can bring in more revenue to the organization.  If you can keep your client happy and increase revenue, you will be a project management hero!