Good Analytical Skills present Options and avoid Scope Creep in Training Projects

Sometimes a customer gives you a problem they *think* they want you to solve, but when you really ‘dig’ into the issues, there might be ‘more than meets the eye.’ As a successful instructional designer, it is a good idea to present all the options for the client or customer to consider.

It is your job and responsibility to help them see the amount of time needed to develop their solution before it turns into scope creep and negatively impacts the Go-Live date. The sooner issues or challenges are brought to light, the more likely you are to be ‘the hero’ versus the one that caused the project to be delayed or a project deadline not to be met by you or your team.

Imagine this, you are nearing the end of a project and your client or customer springs on you their desire to add a new feature that you know will take longer than the current deadline to complete. So, you calmly sit back and listen to their request. After listening to their ideas, you calmly pause, crunch some numbers on your phone or calculator and then you reply.

Your reply shows that you have listened to their ideas and clearly understand their requests. You add to your response that if their ideas are added to the current project, it would push the deadline out by three weeks.

When you relay the time frame, you also tell them why it would extend the current deadline and ask them to make a call as to whether they can deal with the extension or whether to leave the Go-Live date as-is. Now it is ‘in their court’ to decide based on the fact that you were able to clearly delineate what can and cannot be done by the current date. By educating the customer and sticking to the facts, you are showing that you can think on your feet and avoid scope creep.

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