Complex IT Project Management: 16 Steps to Success

13.9 Recognizing Scope Creep

Speaking of which, scope creep usually begins innocently enough. You barrelled into discussions with beneficiaries. You gave them a reasonably in-depth look at your project by:

• Taking them through the "features, functions, and benefits spiel"

• Highlighting key dates

• Soliciting their support

Perhaps at that time, or soon thereafter, an emissary, who expresses concerns about the project, approaches you. This conversation is neither rancorous nor difficult, but some issues are elevated to you, most likely in the "heads up" format. As a consequence, you agree to a series of meetings with beneficiaries and appropriate members of your team. Your expectation is that your team will provide clarification that will reassure beneficiaries that everything has been well thought out. By way of response, the beneficiaries ratchet it up a bit, making you aware of certain technology or date-driven facts that give you pause to wonder what else might have been missed. Before you know it, these discussions have turned into joint planning sessions. Polite inquiries from beneficiaries have now turned into demands or at least discussions of new requirements for your project.

That, of course, should immediately set off bells in your head warning you that the scope creep virus has infected the project. Chances are, however, that you remain on cruise control, doing what project managers do best, which is to arrange and referee meetings with the right people at the table. Discussions become very complicated and the pressure starts to mount. Soon you find yourself backpedalling and explaining why the project was not planning on doing so and so by such and such a date. Again, this is another warning sign of scope creep, but like most project managers, myself included, your focus remains on relationship building and looking for real risk that requires this level of detail and concern.

You should definitely keep in mind a few warning signs, however, to become aware that scope creep is lurking at your door. Here are my favorites:

• Schedule changes. If you find yourself going back to the project calendar and trying to squeeze start and end dates, or move milestones around by more than a week, you are flirting with scope creep.

• Design changes. After meetings with beneficiaries, your engineers start talking to you about additional hardware or software tools. When you ask why these items were not on their original wish list, they tell you about customer or beneficiary-driven requirements that surprise you. This is definite evidence of scope creep.

• Staffing changes. In a similar manner, if team leads come to you requesting additional consulting or vendor dollars to beef up the programming, networking, or support teams, this could be shoddy planning or their knee jerk reaction to scope creep.