In this weeks blog I will be discussing a situation that happened in my life where I was working on a project and experienced set backs due to different reasons. There are many people and situations that cause scope creep to happen during a project. Portny describes scope creep as a natural tendency of a project team member or stakeholder to try to improve a project as it progresses. Based on what we have learned about scope creep I would say it isn't a bad thing, it just gets in the way of the completion of a project.
A good project I could use in my real life that would be a good example of scope creep effecting the end date and budget was when I had to get work done on my car. I know that everyone who drives has issues with their car and needs to get it fixed once in awhile so will probably be able to relate to this.
Let me give you a small background on the project. I found out one day that my car was leaking a fluid and after further inspection found out that it was power steering fluid, it explained why I was having a hard time turning with my car. I also found out that it was a gash in one of the lines and couldn't be temporarily fixed. I kept replacing the fluid every time I needed to travel until I could get time off and money to make the repairs. I had a friend that does good work on cars who said that he could fix mine for a good price and I just had to give him a week. We agreed that I would purchase the parts and he would do the work for free as long as I gave him reasonable time.
The first part of scope creep that I ran into was when, after looking at the front end again, my friend recommended that I might want to spend the few extra hundred dollars to replace all the moving parts because they were rusting very badly. This of course was outside of the project scope because I was only going to fix the power steering and wasn't expecting to spend the extra money but I decided that it was a good idea and I would leave the car with him for 2 more weeks to fix while I was on vacation.
After I came back from vacation I found out that the job had not been completed yet because of unexpected circumstances like budgeting problems and material problems. Some of the parts that were originally ordered were not correct and had to be reordered causing the project to go over the planned budget and take even longer.
The next example of scope creep that happened came from myself. After all the work was done I insisted that the car get taken in anyways to a certified mechanic to do a maintenance check and ensure the work was done well. Again this wasn't planned and even though my friend insisted it wasn't necessary but even though it cost me a bit more money and time I decided it would be a good idea. As Stolovich says we should draw ideas and information from our team. We don't have to take their advice but it is a good idea to get other opinions, especially if change is going to happen with the project.
In this projects case I was the PM so was able to make executive decision about things like money. No matter what I didn't have control over time because I wasn't the one completing the work and unexpected things occurred to. Even though I was a PM there were things that I could have done to help my project have a more expected end. I should have planned extra money into the project as we learned, a minimum of 20%. As the situation came up with my friend needing more money for more parts he told me that it happens especially when you're working on a car. Things often come up that need to be replaced that we didn't plan. I also should have either planned more time for my friend to do the work or discussed a more urgent need to get the work done for me. It would have been nearly impossible to give him extra time so I should have discussed better terms of time to complete the project or found someone else that could maybe do the work faster for a little extra money.
I hope you all can relate to my project and maybe even learn something for yourself for future reference. There are certain things that can help resolve issues in any project. Things like communication and pre-planning come to mind first for me.
References:
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.
Video Program: “Monitoring Projects”, Walden University, 2010
Video Program: “Practitioner Voices: You Can't Win Them All”, Walden University, 2010
Hi Stephan,
ReplyDeleteNice post. I understand how scope creep can occur in a situation like this. It is hard when friends are involved. It sounds like your friend was doing you a favor so it is hard to ask him to hurry up. It sounds like maybe you would have been better off taking your car to a mechanic since you ended up taking it in the end anyways. I guess in a project like this you have to decided which is more important to you as you are considering scope creep and risks: time or money?