The PMBOK position is that ‘gold-plating adds no value to the project. Generic yet powerful concepts of PMBOK guide applies to most of the project most of the time. So most of the time gold plating does not adding value to the project.
In this way I feel it should be ripped off. But other people may differ with this opinion. Saving Changes...
Ripping something out arbitrarily without thought for cost or consequence is as pointless as gold plating in the first place. If the additional features are benign and not actually diminishing the final product, why spend more money and resources on removing it? Saving Changes...
Unless the ripping off is simple and one has ample resources lying idle to do that and the ripped of "Gold plating" could be used somewhere else in a value basis , one should not attempt it. Else it is going to further add to the Gold plating layer with the chances of the product getting "damaged". Saving Changes...
Karlos NetoProject Manager| CNsegRio De Janeiro, Rj, Brazil
Catherine, I really liked your point of view. First of all I would like to thanks for your post.
"Ripping something out arbitrarily without thought for cost or consequence is as pointless as gold plating in the first place."
I totally agree with you on your first sentence, but now I will ask you what is more expensive to the project, to spend more money and resources on removing the "gold plating" or to invest more planning resources to investigate and manage newer risks associated to the new not planned feature and manage newer tests plan to it and other activities not initially planned?
Karlos, that's a great follow up question. Unfortunately, it's one I can't answer since the reply will vary from project to project.
That said, spending the resources and effort on assessing the effect of removing the gold plating is the right and proper thing to do from a project management perspective.
Whatever your scenario, unless you simply ignore the gold plated feature/s, it's going to cost you more. But the risks of doing work without assessing the consequence could cause those costs to spiral. Using the time and resources you have to properly plan the change allows you to regain the control that was lost when the unneeded feature was added.. Saving Changes...
Aejaz ShaikhPM I| Alyx Technologies India Pvt LtdPune, Maharshatra, India
GoldPlating adds no value to the Project. What has already been done can that be ripped off now when detected.
- Do you have time on hand to rip off, will need extra effort and resource
- Are you sure ripping off won't introduce other anomalies in the supposed to be running good proiject (if delivered)
Even though not adding value ripping it off is something like "trying to fix which is yet not broken" Saving Changes...
True according to PMBOK gold plating does not add value to the project. My opinion is that constant dialogue on what the team members (including the PM) are doing could help in early detection as well elimination of gold plating. If this dialogue prevails and is regularly done, say every week or two, late detection could be avoided. Saving Changes...
Thanks Bharat , Catherine , Aejaz and all others those are involved in dicussion. I respect your opinion. Its good to have a discussion with you experienced PMs. And thanks for sharing knowledge.
Few years back I got an opportunity to work on a Software Project as a Assistant Project Manager. I actually faced this situation when few of my development project team members actually added few s/w features that were actually not required. And they did it inadvertently. At that we or the senior mangers didn't know it. after few days we got in a trouble and s/w code that we developed started misbehaving. When we did a root cause analysis we found it was due to feature that was added inadvertently. We were a start up software organization at that time. So at that time since we had a deadline to meet out we evaluated pros and cons of the gold plated feature and cons weighing more than pros so we ripped off the gold plated feature.
Saving Changes...
Babajan PirjadePM Consultant| Archen Engineering ConsultancyPune, Maharashtra, India
Evaluation & comparison of all constraint must be done to be or not to be ripping off the gold plating & accordingly the decision must be taken. Saving Changes...
