It’s already three months after the planned launch date of an online shop. The customer doesn’t blame anyone though: they really like what the initial concept eventually turned into, and are looking forward to…
Oh, wait. Did we just say eventually? But at yesterday’s meeting, the customer’s representative listened to the PM telling how the new suggestions would bloat the scope, increase the budget and postpone the delivery date, and excitedly insisted on three more months and another zillion dollars for the new shiny mobile app. The project no longer seems to be predictable, and much less manageable.
No one knows when it will be finally delivered. Scope creep celebrates its glorious victory.
What is Scope Creep
Scope is the heart of any project. First of all, it is product scope – the final result of the project and project scope – the work needed to produce it. When stakeholders add new product requirements or any other work beyond the agreed-upon scope, it causes scope creep – the growth of the project scope.
Here are a few scope creep examples:
- Significant delay in completing a project due to stakeholders’ consistent change requests
- Bad project management such as bad prioritizing or ignoring bottlenecks
Many managers confuse scope creep with other project management terms, such as scope changes and scope gaps. Let’s see where the differences lay between them.
Scope Creep vs. Scope Change
This difference is the toughest one to decipher. Some of the most common differences between scope creep and scope change include:
- Scope creep is a change made to the project scope that lengthens the original scope.
- Scope creep requires a reassessment of project costs due to the project scope bloating
- Scope creep alters the deliverable of the project without approval.
- Not all parties are aware of the changes in scope creep.
- Scope change involves approved changes to the project’s length and financial agreements.
- Scope change clarifies expectations with a new project proposal.
- All parties are aware of the changes in scope creep.
To sum up, scope creep is bloating in project scope and budgets that not every party is aware of. You can turn scope creep into scope changes by having an honest conversation with the stakeholders, reviewing and documenting new requirements and budgets.
Scope Creep vs. Scope Gap
Scope gap is the shortfall between stakeholder expectations of included scope and the project’s planned or delivered features. In other words, the project team is creating a project that the client isn’t expecting.
Unlike scope creep, scope gap is unintentional. One of the frequent causes of the scope gap is miscommunication between the project team and the client.
Score creep and scope gap typically happen in non-agile teams. In contrast, agile projects continuously refine and renegotiate scope, so scope creep is typically less of a problem, and scope gaps can’t exist beyond a single iteration.
Why Scope Creep Happens
Being a complex problem, scope creep is the consequence of various decisions – and lack of decisions too. Most of them are related to the planning phase – but not all of them.
So, in order to better know the enemy, let’s take a closer look at what causes scope creep.
Project scope is not defined clearly enough
Vaguely defined expected results and features of the final product open the way to feature creep – an ongoing expansion of new features added to the product. They are not necessarily critical or important; mostly they are not. Its negative influence doesn’t limit to delays in project delivery: the most adverse effect of feature creep is overcomplicated design, excessive functionality and, consequently, a product that no one really wants to use.
Changed client’s priorities or needs
This happens often: clients change their minds, want a bit more for the same price, make project-related decisions in the middle of the project course, or look at their competitors’ products and realize they want something similar. This results in new requests to the project team, changes in requirements, and feature creep mentioned above. Again, adapting to the new requirements and delivering new features takes time – large and unpredictable amounts of it.
Poorly identified stakeholder needs and interests
It’s not uncommon that stakeholders are not identified clearly at the beginning of the project and their interests are not taken into account or balanced. This is especially the case of large-scale projects like Berlin Brandenburg airport, where there are too many stakeholders and not all of them are interested in the earliest possible delivery of the project.
Poor initial analysis of what’s necessary and reasonable
What a client demands in the course of the project is not always unnecessary bells and whistles. Sometimes, analysis of a new feature request shows that the feature is critical for the end product. This could be identified before the start of the project, at the planning phase – but that’s something easier to do in hindsight than in real time.
Inability to say no
The proverbial client who is always right is another reason for scope creep. A project manager who is not able to say no to the client or lacks the authority to do so cannot prevent the project from expanding, and time, labor, and costs grow uncontrollably. Also, being not vigilant enough and allowing new features to be added to the scope leads to blurred boundaries and unclear requirements.
Scope Creep Benefits
Scope creep brings chaos into stakeholder – project team relationships: they increase budgets, bring changes to the project schedule and increase lost profits, making the product a questionable business investment with each day of the delay. Despite all these negative effects, scope creeps bring some advantages with them.
Improved Customer Retention
Customers benefit from the scope creep because they get a chance to request more than what’s been initially agreed on and documented. In its turn, contractors have to adjust to these changing requirements, building more significant relationships with clients and improving the chances of their return for future projects.
Learning Opportunities for Project Teams
Every critical situation like scope creep is a new challenge that contracting teams can learn from. The more they plan and adjust to the changing requirements, the better they understand the project planning process and learn to accommodate in the future. Scope creeps give teams the cause to review their internal processes and adjust better in the future.
More Revenue Streams for Project Teams
Scope creeps emerge because stakeholders need new products, features or services, which may potentially develop new revenue streams for contracting companies. So, when you as a contractor have a choice of whether to accept new requirements or not, remove all the doubts and get to work if you have the necessary resources.
How to Avoid Scope Creep
No matter how thoroughly your project is planned, scope creep is always lurking around. Not giving leeway to it is key here: careful project scope management should start before the beginning of actual work on the project.
Here’s a checklist of scope control steps that won’t allow scope creep to usurp your project:
Identify all stakeholders and understand their goals
Do it before you start working on the project: identifying visions, interests and requirements of all involved parties in advance is a necessary step of the project planning phase. It reduces the risk of scope changes in the middle of your project work and helps avoid conflicts caused by unaccounted interests. Communicate more to understand everyone’s vision and expectations, and prioritize the requirements depending on their importance for the project goal.
Clearly define project scope
Another indispensable step of the planning phase that needs close attention to details. Here, it’s important not only to define what is included in the project scope, but also to list what is not included. This minimizes the risk of misunderstanding and reduces the number of new requests, suggestions, and requirements. A clear scope plan also prevents gold plating – a resource-consuming process of development of unnecessary enhancements.
To develop a scope for your project, you may use any of the software tools with project and task management functionality, such as actiTIME. With the help of this smart time tracker, it is possible to plan your future work in advance and then oversee all the scheduled tasks, as well as their deadlines and estimates.
Plan room for changes in advance
Sad but true: not all risks can be foreseen and prevented, and modifications are inevitable. That’s why change control and management procedures should be clearly defined and documented, and room for possible amendments needs to be provided. Make sure your change management process is focused on project goals, and carefully document steps required for making a decision on a project scope modification.
Take action as early as possible
Identify and address possible scope creep at its early stages. New suggestions from clients or sponsors, updated requirements, or feedback from the team on time estimate changes need to be heard, documented, and communicated to involved parties for consideration. The sooner you make a decision on a change, the less harmful effect it will have on the project course and result.
Know when to say no
It’s tempting to implement all suggested features and functions, but it’s rarely good for project delivery time, budget, and the product itself. Saying no to unreasonably time-consuming and expensive features and parts of work is crucial for delivering a quality product on time. Make sure you have a justification for saying no: it can be too much time spent on its development and QA, bloated budget (which may include not only labor costs, but also logistical, legal etc. expenses), or overcomplicated product design.
What to Do If It Has Already Happened
When you’ve already noticed that its scope is expanding, the first obvious step one has to take is slowing down or stopping the expansion. However, to make it possible, you need to reclaim control over the project scope and course.
The question is how to do that?
Understand the importance of new requests and suggestions
New feature suggestions can be just gold plating – or totally reasonable improvements. Establish a process for considering their significance for the end result. If you figure out that they are important for the product’s functionality, comply with the requirements and need to be implemented, prepare necessary changes to the project scope.
Identify the root cause
Identifying the reason why scope creep has started helps a lot with regaining control over it. Depending on it, initial counteractions can be bridging the gaps in determining project boundaries, balancing stakeholders’ interests, re-prioritizing features, or something else that minimizes or stops the scope creep process.
Analyze the effects of scope creep
In the beginning, it’s not always clear how bloated scope will affect delivery date, project budget, and labor input. Analyze already spent time and budget, forecast future expenses, and prepare a report with exact figures of final project costs. It will help all participants of the process understand the scale of the problem and possible outcomes. This data can also be used to rebuild the process and adapt it to necessary changes.
Find a solution with the stakeholders
Analyze the situation and prepare some suggestions on how to stop or prevent scope creep. Be sure to share your ideas and discuss the problem with key project stakeholders as well. Together, you have a better chance to find a good solution that works and suits everyone well.
Prevent Scope Creep With the Right Tools
In most cases, project manager is the person responsible for scope creep and the person who can prevent it. One of the most frequent causes of the scope creep originates from managers or team members introducing new features and improvements, especially in non-agile teams.
Software like actiTIME helps contractors prevent such score creeps by defining time and cost budgets and distributing the accurate amount of workload, allowing no room for tracking more work. Combine actiTIME with cost tracking tools where you can calculate the cost of the scope creep work and decide whether it is worth adopting. If it is, add this workload to actiTIME and distribute it across your team members in a few clicks.
