Scope Creep

In my course this week, I was asked to describe a project that I have done that I experienced issues related to scope creep.  Scope creep refers to “the natural tendency of the client, as well as the project team members, to try to improve the projects output as the project progresses.” (Portney, 2008)  This means that more work was added to the project as time went by.

I was once part of a team that was creating a “show” for parents to watch.  The children were going to perform by dressing up as a famous historical figure and their parents were to guess which character they were.  The project started off with high hopes and intentions.  As the project was moving forward, some of the team members decided that we should also have the students sing a few songs together on stage.  We found appropriate songs and began to practice.  The date of the “show” was coming quickly.  Another team member decided that we should also have a food and drink for the students and parents.  All of these little details added up and now we only had a week to ensure that the students knew there “parts”, were able to sing the songs, and we also had to prepare food, drinks and have a place to gather.  Long story short, it worked out, but I felt it was very disorganized.  The parents were very nice and appreciated what we had done.  To better manage this in the future, I feel that sticking to a plan of action and making sure to have all of the details in the beginning of the project would have made the entire project work more efficiently.

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.