In the world of project management, there’s a common phenomenon that plagues companies with projects of all sizes, and it is rightly termed ‘scope creep’. However, with the right knowledge and approach, here’s how you can keep scope creep at bay!

What is Scope Creep?

Scope creep is like asking your friend to help you change your punctured car wheel, except all of a sudden, they’re now neck-deep in your engine bay fixing your carburetor! In other words, it’s when the original plans or targets of a task grow out of your control. Imagine this: you’ve commissioned a website for your business with a handful of key features. However, as time goes by, you add more features, tweak the initial design, or even add a few extra pages! Suddenly, the project has expanded beyond its original boundaries, leading to scope creep.

Why is it a problem?

While it may seem harmless at first, scope creep can be seriously counterproductive. Firstly, it has the potential to derail your initial project timeline and budget. With extra work, extra time and money needs to be spent. This can lead to confusion within your team and make it much tougher to track projects. Amongst this, there is a high risk of your original goals and objectives getting lost or put on the back burner, affecting the quality of your task.

How to avoid scope creep

Define your project: At the beginning of the project, clearly define your goals, objectives, and requirements. The clearer things are in the beginning, the lower the chance of any ambiguity later.

Create a plan: Craft a detailed plan that includes your project’s timelines, milestones, and a comprehensive breakdown of each individual (and team’s) task.

Establish control protocols: Establish a formal process for managing changes to the project’s scope. Any alterations should go through this process, including evaluation of their impact on time and budget.

Constant Communication: Keep the lines of communication open with your team and stakeholders. Encourage them to voice concerns or suggest changes early on, rather than after the project is well underway.This can be entirely mismanaged by the organization if not dealt in the right way when things are changing.

Document Changes: If any changes are made to the original plan, make sure they are documented clearly. This will help everyone stay on the same page, and understand the reasons why the changes were made.

Scope creep is a project management nightmare you want to avoid at all costs! It can lead to delays, overspending, and confusion. By clearly defining your project, planning ahead, and implementing change protocols, your project can steer clear of scope creep. Ensuring this will lead to your project staying on track, yielding the results you envisioned at the very start.