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.