Scope Creep V/s Gold Plating
Kailash Upadhyay - PMI(PfMP, PgMP, PMP, ACP, RMP) Microsoft(MCP, MCT), IIBA(CBAP)
??Author of Excelling Program Management | ???Host of P3M with Kailash Upadhyay Podcast | Contributor to PMI's 5th edition Standard for Program Management (SPM) | Mentoring the Future Program & Portfolio Leaders
Scope Creep refers to uncontrolled expansion or changes to product or project scope without adjustment to the time, cost, and resources. It can happen when the scope of a project is not properly defined, documented and controlled. Not Involving Users Early Enough.
Gold plating refers to intentionally adding extra features to the product that the customer may or may not be pleased.
Scope Creep & Gold Plating are both concerned with changes to the project scope which may or may not be approved by sponsor. Both are bad for the project and should be avoided as you will have to adjust the additional scope within the original time, cost and resources.
The key differences is, Gold plating related changes are usually to adds extra features to products whereas scope creep related changes are to meet customer product requirements.
How to control both Scope Creep & Gold plating
1. Identify stakeholders early in project.
2. Document the Requirements. The single most important thing to avoid scope creep on your project is to document your requirements.
3. Verify the Scope with the Stakeholders.
4. Shorter release and iteration length. Time-boxing approach helps to minimise scope creep.
5. Set up Change Control Processes.
6. Engage the Project Team throughout the project life cycle.
7. Frequent performance reviews.
Appreciate your feedback and suggestions.
Thanks
Kailash Upadhyay
SAP Portfolio Lead and Solution Architect, Middle East
5 年Good to see how scope creep and gold plating explained with simple? explanation. frequent demos for product features with in sprint also helps to avoid scope creep and gold plating. we should not wait to do the demo at the end of sprint but inspect and adapt can be done frequent with in sprint to ensure product is being built as per user stories of backlogs definitions.