Scope creep: a project manager's worst nightmare

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Like every Tuesday, let’s break down an actionable idea from the intersection of project management & leadership.

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As mentioned last week, we’re going through a complete rebrand of the newsletter.

This week, you’re getting the new looks.

Over the next few days, we’re switching to a custom URL and mail server too. That means two things:

1. Next week you might get the newsletter on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. A new domain can’t send 8,000 emails in a day, so I will have to split the newsletter sending over three days. This is a one-time thing, after that we’re back on Tuesday.

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Last but not least, I’m a project manager, not an email wizard. I have great help, but I’m guaranteed to mess something up. Please give me a week to iron things out!

Onto today’s topic: scope creep.

Scope creep is when you end up doing more work than you initially planned and agreed upon.

It sounds great, you're over-delivering.

But scope creep is a silent killer.

Sure, one small change won’t throw you off course, but a couple hundred all add up. And that’s what we’re digging into today.

Where does it come from?

There are a few reasons that keep coming back in every project I’ve been involved in. Let’s go through, so you know what to look out for:

1. Engineers have a building bias. An extra feature, button, or smoother way of doing something might be fun to make and look great. But if it’s not part of the scope, it’s scope creep.

2. Stakeholders apply pressure or internal politics are played out in your project. It’s your job to manage stakeholders and keep these discussions out of the project.

3. New discoveries through execution. As you dig deep into the execution of your project, you sometimes find new issues. It’s tempting to say that “we’ll fix that right away, while we’re at it”. A nice gesture, and doing it once won’t hurt the project. Doing it 100 times will.

4. Contract or client issues. If your client has to review and approve parts of what you are delivering within the project, make sure that the criteria are set in stone beforehand. Manage the review process and the contract like your project depends on it, because it does.

5. Lack of role understanding, ownership, or communication. If three people think the other person is responsible for something, no one will make the decision. The result? Confusion and double work.

Why does it matter?

The problem with all of the above issues is that they usually start as a small favor. You or your team members want to be good teammates or contractors, so you agree to a small ask.

The problem is: it compounds.

One small extra feature is not the issue, but 100 of them is. A small delay on the critical path might set off a chain reaction, and all of a sudden you have a major delay to deal with.

Scope creep kills timelines, budgets, team morale, and project management careers.

Don’t become a statistic.

Four steps to stop scope creep:

Now that you know what to look out for, here are 4 best practices to stay ahead of scope creep in your project.

1. Requirements that start with why

Requirements that start with a clear purpose give you a simple north star to use in any scope discussion.

Quick story:

Apart from having a clear purpose, make your scope description watertight (last boat pun, I swear). It should describe how the benefits are translated into deliverables. What’s in scope, and what is not? Get as specific as possible.

We dug into how to define project benefits previously. If it interests people, I’ll dig into good scope definitions in an upcoming edition. Let me know!

2. Have a change management process

If defined your scope well, you can boil any new idea or scope question down to one simple question: Does it align with the purpose of the project?

1. If not: discussion over.

2. If yes and not part of the scope: file a change request.

A change request process is a written procedure with a template and clear steps that anyone can apply to their idea. It gives you as the project manager a standardized way of receiving change requests with the information you need to decide if you’ll include it or not.

We’ll go deep into how you handle change requests in a future issue.

3. Stakeholder and contract management

I can’t say this enough: project leadership is about managing relationships. Building trust. Turning high-impact stakeholders into partners.

Read more about stakeholder management here.

If you manage your stakeholders and contracts well, you can see what’s coming. You should never surprise stakeholders, but they should also never surprise you. A strong relationship enables you to stop them from pressuring your team and negotiate about change requests.

4. Communication and ownership

Many of your project’s issues can be boiled down to miscommunication. A lot of this confusion within your team can be taken away by using a good project management tool.

Using a PM tool forces your team to think structured: describe the task, give it an owner, a deadline, and move it along. The transparency this brings is an invaluable tool against scope creep.

Putting it all together

Scope creep is a silent killer, and every project manager has been stalked by it at some point. One small change is not a problem, but 100 is.

To stay ahead of scope creep:

1. Clear requirements and purpose

2. Standard management processes

3. Stakeholder and contract management

4. Clear communication, roles, and ownership

Want to do something today against scope creep?

Take your current work in progress and compare it with the project’s purpose, requirements, and scope description. I guarantee you'll expose scope creep where you didn’t expect it.

The sooner you know it, the better.

That'll do for this week - until next week!

Cheers,Jasper