My experience with scope creep occurred when I was designing a website for a church. After the client informed me of what they wanted, I laid out the design specification just like they asked. A five page website turned into a ten page website. In addition, it was a problem when I added the changes to the final bill. I have it specified in the contract about adding pages. As a web designer, it is my goal to make the site easy to navigate, aesthetically pleasing, well organized and to have a satisfied customer. Furthermore, as a web designer, I am flexible and often do many changes for free but five additional pages were too much. After the experience, I learned:
1. To add a more detail terms and conditions in the contract.
2. To inform clients not to add things that are not necessary,
3. Have several meeting before starting the project
4. To inform clients if I have to make a significant change
5. To realize most of the time clients really do not know what they want.
Avoiding scope creep is not possible but if you monitor and control it by :
1. Using a control system in all project plans
2. Agree upon all changes
3. Require changes to be approved in writing (Portny, et al, 2008).
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. “Monitoring Projects”
Tonya, this is an excellent overall reflection on the affect of scope creep on this project and, in particular, the list you created based on your experience was insightful. The theme here, at least in my eyes, is the importance of having a system in place that allows you as the project manager to maintain open lines of communication with the client throughout every phase of the project. Communicating effectively with the client will allow you to avoid or at least minimize scope creep and provide opportunities to, as you stated, conduct meetings, inform the client of significant changes, and discuss the addition of unnecessary items.
ReplyDeleteHi Tonya,
ReplyDeleteYour example resonates with me because that tends to be my experience anytime I utilize a service or purchase anything. I can never seem to settle for the 'base price'. I never considered scope creep on a personal level, but for some reason, you post made me consider times when I have added or modified something that ended up driving up costs. I do appreciate Greer's (2010)'Project Scope Change Order' worksheet. Not only does it provide a format for comprehensively documenting changes, it requires the approval of the sponsor. Using such a template may have assisted with your situation.
Iona
Hello Tonya,
ReplyDeleteI have also been a part of an organization that was guilty of making additional requests after commitments to a project had been made. Before I was introduced to scope creep, I did not even know that changes had to be contained within a coherent framework in order to avoid scope creep. After reading the resources this week, I think that as you mention, some of the main reasons that scope creep can enter into a project are:
Objectives for the project are not clear
The client is impressed by your work and
wants to apply it elsewhere
There is no disengagement mechanism,
or the designer does not know how to
employ it or the client ignores it
Measure devices for the project are not
clear, so it's hard or impossible to
tell if the project is complete.
Freda
Tonya,
ReplyDeleteThe problems that you ran into are not atypical for freelancers, consultants, or independent contractors. I think you have enumerated the most consequential aspects of how to avoid the repercussion of scope creep as it relates to your line of work.