Scope
Creep is "the natural tendency of the client, as well as the project team
members, to try to improve the project's output as the project progresses"
(Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer & Sutton, 2014). The problem with Scope
Creep is it can potentially increase costs and delay projects causing
frustration for the client as well as the project team.
On
a personal level, scope creep happens almost every time I decide to do a
project or remodel an area of my home.
As of late, I have been obsessed with home-improvement projects, on a
small scale, but nonetheless it is nothing but projects, projects, projects
around here. My husband says I have
“Project-ADD” because I often start new ones before the old ones are complete.
This
spring, I decided to redesign my raised garden and transform it into an actual
garden bed. I planned out the
dimensions, measured, picked the perfect sunny spot and purchased the outer
landscaping bricks. My yard slopes down
so I had to account for the angle and build a small retaining wall. Not only
did I want it to be functional, it needed to be pretty as well.
I
went a bit over budget on the dirt/compost as I wasn’t really sure how much was
needed, but it wasn’t too bad, easily worked around economically speaking. The
problem with scope creep came when I started to dig and place the bricks. HUGE lesson here…’call before you dig’.
Though I did not get electrocuted or reach any depths where I was in danger, I
did slice through the invisible fence wiring a few times. No big deal I
thought, a bit of electrical tape should fix that right up. Well it didn’t.
Our
lovely black lab Beck quickly learned the ‘fence’ was down and he could go and
visit the entire neighborhood. We did
not know it was not working until we got the call from the police department
that they had our dog. A
small city fine for the dog running loose, a call to the local utilities to
come out and mark up the yard and some new wiring (done correctly) and the
garden was finally complete. On a good note, I was able to plant my vegetables
in time and am now reaping the benefits of fresh produce.
Resource
Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M.,
Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning,
scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons,
Inc.
Mariah,
ReplyDeleteIsn't it funny how our personal projects are rife with scope creep. As a landlord, when I go to fix something that has broken I now triple my initial time estimate because something always goes wrong. Recently, I went to replace the hot water handle in the shower. After watching videos and taking notes, I was confident I could change the handle in the 15 minutes the guy in the video did it in. My first attempt was completed in the 15 minutes, but then I realized I put it in backwards. then I forgot to turn the water off before trying to remove the handle, and everything went down hill from there. Four hours later and a little help from a plumber friend I fixed the handle. After conducting a few post-mortem (Greer, 2010)reviews of my landlord projects I have found that all of my projects have exceeded the original timeline by hours. So, now I have to fix the dishwasher, which should only take 20 minutes, but I have told my renters to expect me t be there for at least 4 hours.
Thanks for sharing this - I laughed at the police and dog event.
Tim
Reference
Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.
Hi Mariah,
ReplyDeleteGood story! Scope creep is exactly what it does. It creeps up on you. I think that human nature is to try to "improve" on ideas. Just look at the number of iPhone releases, and they still keep coming. lol I also think that your new found skills as a project manager and lessons learned will keep Beck in the yard.
What a great blog post! I often get caught up with the small project "ADD" trap myself. I now have a kitchen that is half-done with a beautiful backsplash. While the other half of my kitchen remains bare. Meanwhile, I have ordered and replaced the end tables in my den, sold my office furniture because I'm laying out a new office plan, etc, etc. LOL! And the main reason my kitchen isn't complete is because I failed to purchase enough of the self-adhesive tiles in the first place. My problem wasn't scope creep, it was poor project planning! I just need to get back to the store and purchase more materials. The sad thing is, what has been completed looks amazing - you would think I would be motivated to get 'er done! :o)
ReplyDeleteGreat post, as usual!
Hi Mariah,
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed reading you experience with Scope Creep. Sounds like you are keeping yourself very busy with projects. I think sometimes projects prompt other projects to develop - like when you move something then are prompted to move something else - you can end up rearranging a whole room and changing the decor just from adding one small item. It may or may not add cost, but it will certainly be time consuming. I enjoyed your post. Great that you have all those fresh foods from your garden.
Pamela Smith
Mariah,
ReplyDeleteYou sound like me! I spend quite a bit of time in my garden as well. I had my own scope creep for the vegetable garden project I had planned for the summer. I decided that I had 8 weeks to plant the short term crops and start reaping them before the summer ended and I was out of time. I bought all the seeds and somehow the first month of vacation passed and the seeds were not planted. About two weeks ago I finally planted the seeds, needless to say they are still quite young and I will not be able to reap anything before I go back to work. In my case, the time I lost can not be regained, so my reaping time will be much later than I anticipated.