Gopal SahaiCorporate Trainer| Self employedNew Delhi, Delhi, India
Scenario: Internal automation projects
Key Stakeholders: Head of the Organization and Functional Departments.
Project Org Structure: Functional
Background: Many of us have experienced the challenge to deal with Gold Plating and Scope Creep. Especially true for internal projects influenced by Organizational Culture, gold plating is largely self driven (from project inside-out), whereas scope creep has come in from outside (stakeholders wanting more). While controlling gold plating is still manageable, scope creep coming from higher ups is a real challenge; esp. when the same stakeholders later complain of project delays and project mis-management. Eventual impact on team performance and appraisal.
Question: How to manage such situations on stakeholder expectations, both pro-actively and reactively. Saving Changes...
Bala S DuvvuriProject Manager| ShellBangalore, Karnataka, India
Taking the control in the initial stages of the project itself like kick-off meeting .do the stakeholder assessment ,set the expectations,explain them about the change control mechanism and get a sign-off from all the key stakeholders.
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1 reply by Gopal Sahai
Mar 17, 2016 4:52 AM
Gopal Sahai
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Thanks Bala for your response. The situation here is more dependent on Organizational culture because despite ensuring your suggested steps (proactively), in a functional project structure, such contradictions from key stakeholders are not uncommon.
Saving Changes...
Gopal SahaiCorporate Trainer| Self employedNew Delhi, Delhi, India
Mar 17, 2016 3:51 AM
Replying to Bala S Duvvuri
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Taking the control in the initial stages of the project itself like kick-off meeting .do the stakeholder assessment ,set the expectations,explain them about the change control mechanism and get a sign-off from all the key stakeholders.
Thanks Bala for your response. The situation here is more dependent on Organizational culture because despite ensuring your suggested steps (proactively), in a functional project structure, such contradictions from key stakeholders are not uncommon. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Change are allways welcome. But each person inside the organization must know that for each change a process is started to decide about to do or not to do the change. And decision will be based on information and the decesition is not a project manager responsability. There is no way to deal with that. Remember: organizational culture is not written in a paper because is the behaivor that people perform based on the understanding they have of organizational policies. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
A good way to minimize scope creep is doing the project agile, which puts the responsibility for scope on the customer.
In a traditional project you might want to look into iterations for scope definition (rolling wave planning) to make the chunks to control as small as possible. And of course, these chunks have to be under tight change control. Do not hesitate to document each small change, even if if the impact is negligible, because a high change frequency also leads to impacts you have to deal with. Risk management also helps to contain changes.
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1 reply by Gopal Sahai
Mar 17, 2016 12:59 PM
Gopal Sahai
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Agile...yes that's understandable way to go. I guess an Agile culture also needs to be cultivated. How... that's another topic.... but digestible chunks can help engage the stakeholders by creating positive interest levels for them.
Saving Changes...
Gopal SahaiCorporate Trainer| Self employedNew Delhi, Delhi, India
Mar 17, 2016 12:33 PM
Replying to Thomas Walenta
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A good way to minimize scope creep is doing the project agile, which puts the responsibility for scope on the customer.
In a traditional project you might want to look into iterations for scope definition (rolling wave planning) to make the chunks to control as small as possible. And of course, these chunks have to be under tight change control. Do not hesitate to document each small change, even if if the impact is negligible, because a high change frequency also leads to impacts you have to deal with. Risk management also helps to contain changes.
Agile...yes that's understandable way to go. I guess an Agile culture also needs to be cultivated. How... that's another topic.... but digestible chunks can help engage the stakeholders by creating positive interest levels for them. Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
Actually, I find gold plating more difficult to manage. Unless you are doing inspections or walkthroughs of the deliverables, you may be totally unaware of gold plating.
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1 reply by Gopal Sahai
Mar 17, 2016 11:55 PM
Gopal Sahai
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I agree with you, Stéphane Parent, that gold plating can be managed through inspections or walkthroughs. By doing so, it will cap potential scope leaks much earlier.
But the issue here really is more to do with the mindset of stakeholders themselves, who are pouring in requirements or pushing too many changes before the baseline could be delivered. Its behavioural skills more into play here.
Saving Changes...
Gopal SahaiCorporate Trainer| Self employedNew Delhi, Delhi, India
Mar 17, 2016 6:38 PM
Replying to Stéphane Parent
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Actually, I find gold plating more difficult to manage. Unless you are doing inspections or walkthroughs of the deliverables, you may be totally unaware of gold plating.
I agree with you, Stéphane Parent, that gold plating can be managed through inspections or walkthroughs. By doing so, it will cap potential scope leaks much earlier.
But the issue here really is more to do with the mindset of stakeholders themselves, who are pouring in requirements or pushing too many changes before the baseline could be delivered. Its behavioural skills more into play here. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Mindsets, behaviors and expextations should be handled by engaging with stakeholders based on the strategies planned after stakeholder analysis. Core task. Saving Changes...
Seema SonkiyaHead Business Analysis Practices, PMI-PBA trainer| iZenBridge Consultancy Private LimitedJaipur, Rajasthan, India
Thomas, I completely agree with your point, and sometimes soft skills also play a useful role in influencing, negotiating and in conflict resolution to engage stakeholders. Saving Changes...
Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
Agree with Seema. Building up a trusting and open relationship with the stakeholders provides a strong foundation for leveraging communication skills. Openly discuss what is being asked, how it does not fit into the original scope. Suggest finishing the current effort, and talk about revisiting those new items in an enhancement project. From the Business perspective, there will almost always be other items to add, and each new item can spawn ideas for even further ideas. By discussing that, and the implications, you can help them to see the benefits of sticking to, and release of, their original vision, getting it out there for use, and taking a holistic approach to learning from usage, what further enhancements can be looked at. I also agree with Thomas Walenta on taking an Agile or Rolling Wave approach for projects that may not have very succinct requirements or scope. Saving Changes...
