I have a personal experience with scope creep. I did not know it was called scope creep at the time, I assumed it was a nuisance and a big problem. I was planning a fifth birthday party for one of my daughters at American Girl. The reservations require accurate head count because they reserve just enough seats for the party participants. There are typically ten parties going on at one time. American Girl schedules their parties during certain time frames. They open their doors every two hours for parties. When you schedule a party with American Girl they explain that the guest must arrive on time and you have one and a half hour for the party. Once you give them the final head count for the party, you can not increase the number of guest. I placed all of this pertinent information on the invitation and asked all of the parents to please RSVP by the due date. Well I am sure by now you can kind of guess where this story is going. The day of the party everyone was there on time, as we were walking into the restaurant I heard a voice call my name. I turned to see who it was, it was one of the parents who did NOT RSVP for the party along with both of her daughters (Only one is in my daughter's class). I was so shocked I did not know what to do. She explained that she did not get an opportunity to RSVP for the party and she hoped it was okay for them to come. I still have the other guests to begin entertaining as well as deal with this scope creep. I wanted to tell her that she could not attend this party because she did not RSVP and therefore was not included in the final head count. Instead I asked her to wait a moment and let me get the other guests seated and I would figure this out. Two other mom's volunteered to give up their seats to the little girls so they could enjoy the party. That was a great idea except for the fact that it left me and one other parent to handle the girls. I was hoping to have more parent support at the party so that I could host. I agreed to let the other moms leave so the girls could attend. It turned out to be a great party and I was glad it worked out. This could have been a disastrous party. The mother thanked me dearly for allowing them to attend and we are good friends to this day.
Scope creep is when individuals want to add more or change your project. Vince Budrovich stated saying “No” is one of a project managers essential tools for controlling scope creep. Dr. Stolovitch suggested letting individuals know in a friendly manner that their idea is great but not for this particular project and you would be willing to help start a new project using these ideas. The suggestions sound so great but what happens when they do not apply to your situation. “Avoiding scope creep is not possible. However, monitoring it, controlling it, and thereby reducing some of the pain is possible- if the manager follows a few guidelines.”
1. Include a change control system.
2. Insist that every project change is introduced by a change order that includes a description of the agreed upon change together with any resulting changes in the plan, processes, budget, schedule, or deliverables.
3.Require changes be approved in writing by the client as well as by a representative of senior management.
4.Amend and update all project plans and schedules to reflect the change after the change order has been approved.
(Portny et. al. 2008, p.347)
My personal experience doesn't follow exactly like the above suggestions, but I think I did follow some of the steps to avoid scope creep. I sent out invitations with the important information on it and explained that I needed a head count. I requested that everyone be on time and explained the length of the party. I thought I'd covered all of my basis but somehow a problem still occurred. I think in my situation I wasn't able to avoid the problems but I was able to reduce any other issues similar to this. I think as individuals we are always managing some type of project whether it is personal or work related. The only thing I see that I could have implemented differently is possibly stating that if you do not RSVP you can not attend. I thought using this type of verbiage was rude and chose not to use it and it caused a slight problem. In the future I will make sure my objectives are clearly stated. “Scope creep is inevitable with projects, but a change control system can lessen its stressful aspects.”(Portny et. al. 2008, p. 348)
References:
Portny, S., Mantel, S., Meredith, J., Shafer, S. & Sutton, M. (2008). Project Management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. San Francisco: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Hi Kimberly:
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you received my other comment. What I said basically was that Post Creep does not always have to be a bad thing. It could be a positive thing if handled professionally, go to http://michaelgreer.biz/?page_id=636.
Reference
http://michaelgreer.biz/?page_id=636.
Kimberly,
ReplyDeleteGreat description of Scope Creep in your life projects, I have discovered as parents we deal with scope creep on a daily basis. In my life as in yours “ the best laid plans of mice and men go a rye”. Scope Creep is when all the planning is not enough things happen you have to recalculate, evaluate a new plan, say no, and try not to ruffle feathers along the way. I found this great website that has an overview of project management at http://www.qwiki.com/q/#Project_management this is a good place to help better understand the process of project management. Enjoy.
Crystal Annang
Hi Kimberly,
ReplyDeleteI applaud you for handling the "scope creep" as you did because I may not have been so gracious (except for the fact that children were involved and it wasn't their fault). I've given many many parties and cannot believe, to this day, how many people DO NOT RSVP. Not only do they not RSVP, but when they do show up they bring two or three "uninvited" guests with them. Now let's not talk about rude.... ok. I'm hosting a New Year's Eve party this year and just handed out 30 invitations requesting RSVP AND a message stating "by invitation only, please do not forward this invitation." We'll see what happens with this one! :)
Just as not receiving enough information can cause scope creep, receiving too much information can have the same problematic results. I was involved in a project where we update an eight-page pamphlet once each year and are not permitted to go outside the 8-page limit. In order to do this, we send out requests for content update to our 12 or so stakeholders a few months ahead of time. It never fails, even though we list the objective of the pamphlet, this is information for newly-contracted physicians and ONLY contains the information they need to do business with us during their first 30-60 days, we receive loads of requests to add information outside the scope of this objective. Similar to your attempts at not being "rude," we have required them to submit change requests to us by a specific date and let them know the team will review the request and give them our decision. We must also remain professional and counter these requests with adequate justifications and in a timely manner. This can sometimes be very time consuming and challenging. We have found however that by sticking to our guns and setting expectations, we are receiving fewer and fewer requests each year to go outside the scope of the project.
Great job dealing with the two extra little girls!
Reference:
Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.
Portny, S., Mantel, S., Meredith, J., Shafer, S., Sutton, M., & Kramer, B. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Hi Kimberly,
ReplyDeleteI applaud you for handling that "scope creep" as you did because I may not have been so gracious (except for the fact that children were involved and it wasn't their fault). I've given many many parties and cannot believe, to this day, how many people DO NOT RSVP. Not only do they not RSVP, but when they do show up they bring two or three "uninvited" guests with them. Now let's not talk about rude.... ok. I'm hosting a New Year's Eve party this year and just handed out 30 invitations requesting RSVP AND a message "by invitation only, please do not forward this invitation." We'll see what happens with this one! :)
Just as not receiving enough information can cause scope creep, receiving too much information can have the same problematic results. I was involved in a project where we update an 8-page pamphlet once each year. In order to do this, we send out requests for content update to our 12 or so stakeholders. It never fails, even though we list the objective of the pamphlet, this is information for newly-contracted physicians and ONLY contains the information they need to do business with us during their first 30-60 days, we receive loads of requests to add information outside the scope of this objective. Similar to your attempts at not being "rude," we require a change request then review each one in a professional and timely manner.
I bet those little girls will never forget that party!
References:
Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.
Portny, S., Mantel, S., Meredith, J., Shafer, S., Sutton, M., & Kramer, B. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Kimberly,
ReplyDeleteOuch! I am glad I do not handle these types of things, the PM in my house for birthday parties is my wife. My wife is so detailed oriented that all but one of our kids parties was a smashing success. Last year, my middle child planned his birthday with my wife to be on Halloween trick or treat night - party then trick or treating. One kid showed up due to the fact all his other friends attended another friends birthday party we knew nothing about. Lessoned learned - research, research, research!
All the contingencies you mentioned would work for your situation, but in our case research and set-up would have been the key to avoiding uncertaintity and risks.