How do project managers handle scope creep?

Picture gotten from Xavier Leadership Center.

Change they say is the only constant thing! While some changes come with bells and whistles, others are as meek and harmless as a sheep. This is the tale of scope creep. It might be as simple as one or two minor added task that might not hurt the project in the short term, to an outrageous request from stakeholders to add a major feature to the project. Either ways scope creep is unavoidable! In the project management world, scope creep is to a project as man is to breathing in oxygen. According to Howitz, although there are several reasons why a project could fail, but one of the major reasons is scope creep (Howitz, C. 2010).That is not to say as project managers we should just sit around, fold our arms and do nothing about it. Scope creep itself is not always the ugly monster some project managers paint it to be, how it is managed is what matters the most (Russell, L.2007). Now comes the big question, how can scope creep be managed?




WHAT IS SCOPE CREEP?

Picture obtained from Innova's website

Scope creep can be defined as a process where changes are made to a projects deliverables, outcomes or requirements/features either without stakeholder’s approval or without managing the effects this change or changes could have on the projects schedule, budget or time.  (Snedaker, S. 2005). Scope creep could also be defined as incremental changes made to the projects objectives, with no extra budget or time given. (Dayal, S.)


HOW DOES SCOPE CREEP HAPPEN?
Let’s take a look at a very simple example of scope creep; Nelly is her company’s IT manager, who has been sent on training in Dubai. She is rushing to the Heathrow international airport to catch her flight to Dubai which she barely has enough time to, but her boss calls her and makes a request that she picks up a parcel for him at the Gatwick airport.  Now the Gatwick airport is 40 miles away, remember she barely has enough time to get to the Heathrow airport in the first place, but now she has an extra 80 miles to do on the congested London motorway and do a pick up. (Graham, N. 2010).

Scope creep could occur when the project requirements are not well formed or are not clearly understood by stakeholders. Scope creep could also occur due to unforeseen circumstances and events, both external and internal.

REAL WORLD EXAMPLES OF SCOPE CREEP
 The largest water provider in Australia, Sydney Water Corp. in 2002, tried to introduce an automated billing and customer information systems. The project was aborted midway by the company after it has spent $61million Australian dollars on the project. (USD $33.2 million) Amongst other factors that caused the failure of this project were poor planning and requirements specification, which in turn led to incessant change request by stakeholders, significant added cost and delays which are all characteristics of scope creep. (Charette, R. N. 2005)

Another classic example is the case of the FBI’s virtual case file that was worth US $170 million. The project was delivered with 700,000 lines of bug ridden code. It was intended to be a database program with which FBI agents could trace relationships between a suspect’s phone calls, meetings, interviews, etc. The new system was supposed to also enable agents to share this information amongst them. Some obvious reasons for this projects failure were, malformed and slowly changing design requirement, these problems would have been solved if the right steps were taken to prevent or manage scope creep (Goldstein 2005)

WHO CREATES SCOPE CREEP?
Surprisingly the answer to this question is, everyone or anyone i.e. stakeholders, involved in the project can create scope creep.  The question is who are the stakeholders? Stakeholders are people who provide inputs/outputs during the life cycle of the project or have interest in the projects product/outcome (Russell, L. 2007).

WHAT CAUSES SCOPE CREEP?
You cannot fully expound the subject of scope creep without talking about change. The job of a project manager would have been simpler if projects were not characterised by change, but of course the business world will not halt and wait for you to finish your project, changes occur all the time!

There are a host of causes of scope creep; some of them are, not well defined project scope/objectives, changes in laws or regulations, technology, market trends and demands, during the project. Also, incessant change request by stakeholders to improve the project, if not well managed could also cause scope creep (Lewis, J. P.)

According to Rick Brenner, when planning and executing a project in an unfamiliar field/industry, the project manager could underestimate the complexity of the project. Surprisingly, being a perfectionist or trying to consolidate multiple projects can also cause scope creep. (Brenner,R  2002)

Dr. Kerzner also stated that there are no formal risk analysis and planning, poor or non-existent communication plan and misinterpretation of project requirements could cause scope creep.

PREVENTING SCOPE CREEP
Managing scope creep cannot be over emphasized, although scope creep cannot be fully controlled or totally avoided by any set of steps, methods or techniques (Dayal, S. 2008) getting it right from the start is very important, by defining objectives clearly and defining its boundaries. It is also very important for you to clearly communicate these objectives to stakeholders, in pictorial form; a scope diagram. This is because pictures are better communication means. A scope diagram will help stakeholders easily identify their responsibilities and also clarify issues of inputs and outputs to the project. It is also pertinent that the projects objectives should be SMART- specific, measurable, action oriented, realistic and time-bound. In an event of change to the project scope, a scope diagram will also help the stakeholders and project manager to appreciate the risk and effect this change in requirements could have on the project’s success. Communication is one key factor to consider when managing scope creep (Russell, L. 2007).

TYPES OF SCOPE CREEP
According to Trish and Melton, there are three main types of scope creep, there are;
• Requirements creep: This happens when projects requirements are added in bits and pieces, that is the scope is not fully defined from the beginning of the project.
• Feature creep:  This occurs especially in software development projects when team members e.g. software engineers add features to the system that were not initially agreed upon but are foreseen by the team as necessary or needed.
• Instruction creep: is caused by a change in procedural projects where the initially simplified business directives is made more and more complex in other to be able to handle unpredicted events.

WHEN IS SCOPE CREEP GOOD?
Greg Hirine in his article on essential elements for managing any successful project described a successful project as a project that is delivered as promised, on time, within budget, agreed quality, achieved goals and objectives, maintained relationships and met all stakeholders’ satisfaction. But the big question is do clients always know what they want? The answer is no. According to Stephanie Gurlen, many times, clients do not know what they want from a product at the beginning of the project until at they see the outcome/product. In an event where they are not happy with the final product, it becomes necessary for changes to be made to satisfy the customer, this is where scope creep comes in. However, prototyping can be a good way to solve this problem (Gurlen, Stephanie. 2003)

CONSEQUENCES OF SCOPE CREEP
Scope creep if not managed properly is every project manager’s worst nightmare, with several effects on both the project and his personal life.  According to Mielke,Deb. in Stephanie Gurlen  (2003)article, highlighted the fact that scope creep can cause the cost of a project to be quadrupled. He also stated that projects affected by mismanagement of scope creep might also suffer decreased return on investment (RIO), additional losses and increased cost of maintenance. This is because naturally you would expect that a project affected by scope creep will be completed later than was initially planned, this also means more money will be spent and the benefits of the project will be delayed. Following our earlier definition of a successful project, the above stated effects will also have a down turn on the project sponsors and as such will make them discontent and unhappy. This is also not good for the project manager’s personal life and career because a failed project could be for his professional portfolio.


CURE FOR SCOPE CREEP
Some school of thought might suggest a “freeze” of the projects objectives after the planning stage of the project to avoid scope creep, but that is a very naïve way of tackling scope creep. A Change control plan/mechanism is the best way to manage scope creep. Briefly explained below are two methods used by project managers to manage scope creep.

SCOPE TRACKER
From my research I have found out that scope creep is even more dangerous when the project manager does not perceive or identify it when it happens to take precautionary steps to manage it. One method that can be used by project mangers to identify and handle scope creep is a scope tracker.  A scope tracker can be used to identify, track, access and justify scope changes. Because it is easy to identify change in scope through changes in deliverables, this method creates the dots that link a change in project deliverables to a change in scope (Melton & Smith 2009). The basis of this scope tracker was obtained from CTQ scope definition tool in Project Benefits Management (Melton, et al., 2008). Explained below are the key features of the unique tool.

TABLE 1.0 Scope tracker (Melton & Smith 2009)

Deliverable: Most times a change in scope directly affect the projects deliverables, so deliverables that will change due to a scope change are to be listed in this column.

Change: Before a change is agreed upon, the nature of the change on the project deliverables should be accessed and determined e.g. an addition to the already existent deliverables or an adjustment to existing ones.

Scope: This column should answer the question of where the scope was affected and which deliverable is connected to that change.

Impact (on scope): This column records results of an impact assessment the changed deliverable will have on the project scope.

CRITICAL FEATURE: This column identifies what the original critical feature which the scope is linked to is.

Impact (on critical feature): The change in scope will affect the project’s critical feature; an assessment process at this point should be able to discover the change. Scope creep can be ascertained at this point because when there is a change in scope the existing critical features remain constant, the difference is that new ones are added.

Benefit criteria: The original benefit feature which the critical features are related to should be recognized and enlisted here.

Impact (on benefit criteria): This part of the scope tracker accesses the change to the critical features against the project benefits.

CHANGE REQUEST FORM
Most people often mistake change control to mean preventing change, but that is not true, change control actually entails controlling changes made to a projects scope (Graham.N . 2010). Project managers can also control change by means of a change request form.  In an event of a suggested change by a team member or stake holder, the change request form is used by the project manager to formally document the change and its likely effect on the project if approved. This form also enables listing of the cost and benefits associated with implementing the change as well as ranking of the change urgency (Panneerselvam & Senthilkumar 2009).

TABLE 1.1 Change request form (Kloppenborg. T. J, 2009)



CONCLUSION
It is apparent that there are two sides to the coin, while changes to the project scope might cause scope creep in some projects because a change management process was not used, it could also be a blessing for good project managers who have gotten it right from the planning stage by clearly defining a project boundary (scope) and have taken the right steps to control any changes that could be adopted during the projects life cycle.





REFERENCES:
1. Brenner, R. (2002) Some causes of scope creep. Retrieved March 18, 2011, from http://www.chacocanyon.com/pointlookout/020904.shtml

2. Charette, R. N. (2005) Why Software Fails.  Retrieved March 19, 2011, from  http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/why-software-fails/3

3. Dayal, S. (2008) Earned Value Management using Microsoft Office project, a guide for managing any size project effectively. Florida: J.Ross Publishing, Inc.


4. Dr. Kerzner, H. (2009) Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and controlling (10th edition). New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

5. Graham, N. (2010) Prince2 for dummies. England: John Wiley & Sons, ltd.

6. Howitz, C . (2010) Scope Management: Don’t let your project fail because of the scope creep. Retrieved March 20, 2011, from  http://blog.simcrest.com/scope-management-dont-let-your-project-fail-because-of-scope-creep/

7. Integrated management systems/ Inc. (2007) Scope creep- A lethal project disease thoughts on prevention and cure. Retrieved March 18, 2011, from http://www.imsi-pm.com/home/library/scope_creep.pdf


8. Kloppenborg, T. J. (2009) Contemporary Project Management. USA: South-Western Cengage Learning.

9. Lewis, J. P. (2008) Mastering Project Management: Applying Advanced Concepts to Systems Thinking (2nd ed.). USA: McGraw-Hill Companies.


10. Melton, T.  & Iles-Smith, P.  (2009)Managing Project Delivery: Maintaining Control and Achieving Success. USA: Elsevier Ltd.

11. Panneerselvam, R. & Senthilkumar, P. (2009) Project Management. New Delhi: Asoke K.Ghosh, PHI Learning Private Limited.

12. Russell, L. (2007)10 steps to successful project management. Maryland: Victor graphics, Inc.


13. Snedaker, S. (2005) How to cheat at IT Project Management. Massachusetts: Syngress Publishing, Inc.

14. Suresh, B.  (2005) Scope Creep is Not Only Inevitable; it's Natural. Retrieved March 20, 2011, from http://www.projectmagazine.com/monitoring-and-controlling/49-scope/52-scope-creep-is-not-only-inevitable-its-natural.

15. Walker, D. H. T & Rowlinson, S . (2008) Procurement Systems, A cross-industry perspective. Oxon: Taylor  & Francis.

16. Zaval, L.K & Wagner, T . (2009) Project manager Street smarts, a real world guide to PMP skills. Indiano: Wiley Publishing, Inc.