Scope Creep: Learning From Experience
Scope creep can happen in all sorts of projects, whether for a personal or professional project you are working on. Sometimes, stakeholders can warn of possible issues that can arise; other times, they can happen from out of nowhere. For this blog, I will be sharing one experience in which scope creep occurred, how I handled the situation at the time, and what I would do differently now.
I was a part of a team developing a demonstration video to
train educators on how to fill out an observation form on the children. This part
was one section of a grand training plan to implement a new curriculum; thus,
this section was critical for other areas of the training plan to be
implemented.
Since this was the first time either of the team members had
created a demonstration video using PowerPoint and distributed the video to the
educators as part of a blended learning training, we tried to account for all
the details as best as we could. At first, everything was going according to plan. We
analyzed the learners, made the list of the required tasks, and noted the
resources to put this whole training together. We were sailing through on this
project and were right on time to meet the due date we set.
Yet, towards the end of this project, that's when the shoe
dropped. Before we were ready to distribute the training demonstration, the
Director reviewed the video demonstration and decided she wanted actual footage
of the center’s children instead of using YouTube videos. She thought it would be
best to showcase our classrooms with our children.
At the time, we had explained to her that was the initial
plan; however, time constraints and other items outside the project's scope
caused us to take a different approach to save time and resources. Additionally,
we explained that the YouTube video quality was higher than what recording we
could do with our resources. Still, she was insistent that we record our children
in our classrooms. This expectation set the due date back at least two weeks since
we needed to get the family’s permission for the children and try to edit the
video with our limited resources.
Overall, the demonstration video went well. The majority of
the educators learned the process of filling out the form. Although it pushed
back the scheduled dates for this project section, the educators still had sufficient
time to get used to the observation form before implementing the next section
of the curriculum plan.
We had a learning curve in this process; as there are many items,
we would make adjustments to avoid unnecessary scope creep. First off,
communication is critical. It would help if you had frequent contact with
stakeholders; therefore, there are no surprises (Walden University, n.d.). In
the future, there needs to be an established system to keep the stakeholders aware
of the project process and schedule time for them to review and approve various
project milestones. In that case, questions or concerns can be addressed throughout
the process instead of at the end, saving time and resources. You must also be proactive
in setting solutions to scope creep from the beginning of a project; therefore,
you can limit the negative impact on the project you are working on (Adobe Experience
Cloud, n.d.). Finally, in the future, we need to have a contingency plan for any
technical issues that may arise, allowing additional time to sort out all
problems we could face.
Reference:
Adobe Experience Cloud (n.d.). Scope creep. https://www.workfront.com/project-management/knowledge-areas/scope-management/scope-creep
Walden University, LLC. (Executive Producer). (n.d.). Monitoring
projects [Video file]. https://class.waldenu.edu
Hi again, Janelle, I couldn't agree more with establishing a system to assure the stakeholders are abreast of the project process and schedule. The review and approval process is essential to avoiding scope creep. Like you said, communication should be ongoing throughout the process, but there has to be definitive milestones and the idea that some ideas will likely be left behind during the process. Stephen King once wrote “Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings (King, 2000).” Moving forward with a project often means "killing" some ideas along the way. The sign off decision process and documents help with this process so that those left-behind ideas aren't constantly being revisited or ideas rehashed. Thank you for your post!
ReplyDeleteKing, S. (2000). On writing: A memoir of the craft. Scribner.
Janelle,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog. I am happy to hear that in the end everything came together more or less. However, I can only imagine how disheartening it must have been to spend time developing a demonstration video, arriving to the point of implementation, and then having a change request from the Director - and not a small change request, might I add! I applaud your whole team for being able to step up to the plate, accommodate the change, and make it work!
Dear Janelle,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your blog post in which you discussed your previous project on a demonstration video to train educators. It was quite an interesting and informative read. I agree with your position that "communication is critical" and that "it would help if you had frequent contact with stakeholders". I want to believe that in the case of the project you described above, had there been a change of scope document, the Director would have known ahead of time that you were substituting YouTube videos for actual footage of the center’s children, contrary to the initial plan. That way, the Director would have been apprised of the project team's intention and decision which the Director might also have been a signatory to. Consequently, the delay might have been somewhat reduced or even somehow avoided.
Briliant post, Janelle.
Mayo
Janelle,
ReplyDeleteYour story was fascinating to read. I haven't worked on an overly large project myself, so reading yours was eye opening. Thank you for sharing it with us.
I completely agree with you that constant communication is the key to keeping a project on task and on time. Not only does it keep the stakeholders updated with what is happening, but helps to avoid making changes to the project without permission. By bringing project issues or needed changes to the stakeholder’s attention, they can give input on how to best move forward. This also helps to eliminate the need to redo any work that wasn’t approved first.