Hey everyone.
I'm Max Dalton, and in this video I'm going to talk about how to manage scope creep in
project management.
Scope creep, also commonly referred to as gold plating, occurs when requirements that
weren't previously taken into consideration during the planning phase start to get rolled
into a project after development has already started.
As these additional requirements pile up, projects and project teams will start to fall
apart under the weight of the additional work.
While there are legitimate requirements that may pop that will need to be rolled into the
project plan during development, the responsibility rests on the shoulders of the project manager
to drive conversations and implement processes that will prevent the scope of work from expanding
beyond what is deemed critical after the initial scope is already agreed to.
The following video presents five tools project managers can use to handle scope creep.
Number one.
Gather clear requirements.
The first part of good requirements gathering is making sure that you have the right stakeholders
identified and plugged into the project from the beginning.
After you're confident you have the right stakeholders involved, a good way to start
gathering requirements is to have an initial conversation with the project's executive
sponsor to get her thoughts around what the requirements are, and let her guide you around
who to talk with next.
During those conversations, document the functional versus the non-functional requirements, and
also which requirements are required versus which requirements would be nice to have.
After you reach a point where you're comfortable you have a solid start at building the requirements,
schedule sessions with the larger team to review the requirements and make sure everything
is accounted for.
Additionally, to flesh out your gathered requirements further, maybe try conducting a brainstorming
session or mapping the process flow as a check and balance.
Continue socializing the requirements until you are confident they have been fleshed out
fully, giving the scope of your project a solid foundation.
Number two.
Stakeholder sign-off.
After you've fully fleshed out a project's requirements, another good way to prevent
scope creep is to have all of the project stakeholders sign off on those requirements.
If you've never had stakeholders do this before, you may be surprised at the number of requirements
that get added or modified when you start asking them to put their signature on them
and validate that they feel like everything has been captured.
This can add significant time to the project at the beginning, but it will save you a lot
of pain further down the line, as cleaner requirements will reduce the risk of scope
creep.
An added benefit of having stakeholders sign off on the requirements is that if they come
to you while the project is in the development phase and try to expand the project's scope
by adding requirements, you can remind them of the document they signed off on previously,
and reminding them that they can't change the project's scope without impacting the
timeline and the cost of the project.
Number three.
The change control process.
A good change control process puts the responsibility on the team leading the project to approve
all changes to the initial scope of the project as a group.
One benefit of a change control process is that it serves as a check and balance that
the project manager is not operating in a vacuum.
Another benefit of a change control process is that the responsibility for decision-making
is shared, as all requests to deviate from the initial scope of the project have a detailed
request submitted that is vetted by the project's senior leadership.
As part of the vetting, the project's leadership should not just review the core ask, but also
the risks, cost, and resources associated with doing that work.
Number four.
Negotiate.
Don't be afraid to negotiate with stakeholders who want to make change to the agreed-upon
scope of a project.
This will require some creativity on your part.
A good tactic to use can be saying that you'd be happy include that requirement in the project
scope, but only if other elements of the existing scope are trimmed to free up resources, money,
and time to accommodate the change.
Alternatively, if the requestor isn't the project sponsor, ask them to discuss their
propsed change with the project sponsor to get their input before you spend time analyzing
the request.
Alternatively, another option is to explore alternative ways to build in what the requester
is looking for in a way that wouldn't have a dramatic impact on the existing scope.
Number five.
Future phases.
Another tactic is to work with the individual looking to expand the scope of a project and
see if there's an opportunity to do that work as part of a future phase.
This is an especially easy sell if the requester has a lot of work that they would like to
see done.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of this approach is that it gives you more time to analyze
the requests appropriately and develop the best plan to execute on adding that functionality.
Congratulations!
You now know how to manage scope creep in project management.
Thanks for watching.
Leave your thoughts and questions in the comments section below.
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