Defeat scope creep with effective change approval criteria
Bonnie Biafore
LinkedIn Learning rock star, project management consultant, and Microsoft Project guru. More than 6 million online learners!
Scope creep is an insidious ooze of changes that can sink a project. Robust change management that thoroughly evaluates the merits of proposed scope changes is key to thwarting the creepy scope threat. One place to start is with solid change approval criteria.?
Typically, change approval criteria evaluates:
These evaluations are enough for small projects or very minor changes. For more significant scope change, it’s better to strengthen your change approval criteria.?
How does the scope change affect project risk? Change-related risk can vary. Adding new technology, tightening deadlines, or deploying multiple changes simultaneously can challenge your business. Examine the risk each change brings to your project and the business.
Does the scope change add stakeholders to the project? Adding stakeholders to an existing project can trigger replanning, alter success criteria, or lead to issues with prioritizing requirements. These activities can be very disruptive and should be carefully evaluated before approving a change.
Is additional integration involved? Increased integration of technical tools, business processes or both will add complexity to your project and expand your need for testing. This can also require additional specialized personnel on your project.
Are multiple vendors required? Multiple vendors add contract management time. In addition, vendors working together can add complexity and conflict, as vendor expectations and agendas may differ. Examine your history with vendors to assess the merit and impacts of a change.
Does the proposed change support the spirit of the project’s original scope? Ambitious or creative stakeholders can recommend project scope changes that won’t enhance or expand the original intent and business case for your project. Evaluate changes against the initial project purpose to ensure your projects remain focused and stay within triple constraint expectations.
Do you use other criteria to evaluate proposed project changes? If so, share with us in the comments section.
For more about change management, check out Scott Mautz’ Change Management Foundations course.
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Projects can fail due to “one small change at a time”. Some great tips Bonnie Biafore.
HR Business Advisor
2 年Thanks for the reminders on scope management, Bonnie!
Teach Project Management courses to technical graduate students
2 年A good way to avoid some or all "scope creep" is in the Project Charter (or could be in the Scope Statement). I define the project's boundaries such as what is included (e.g., deliverables) and what is not included (e.g., elimination of mistakes and sometimes dangerous assumptions).