Scope creep occurs when project requirements expand beyond the original plan, leading to delays, budget overruns, and resource strain. Uncontrolled changes and shifting priorities can quickly turn a well-structured project into a challenging one to manage. Understanding why scope creep happens and how to prevent it is essential for keeping projects on time, within budget, and aligned with business goals. This guide explores effective strategies to maintain control and ensure project success.
In this article:
What is scope creep in project management?
Scope creep refers to a project’s features, requests, and requirements increasing from its initial scope over the course of the project lifecycle. Successful projects begin with excellent planning and concrete project parameter definitions to ensure all stakeholders have the same project expectations.
An integral part of project planning is to create the scope of the project, which helps determine goals, constraints, workflow management strategies, and deliverables. The project plan outlines all deliverables to meet the required scope of the project, including its specifications, the schedules guiding each phase of the project, and any restrictions.
Scope creep typically begins during the planning and execution phases. Executives or project sponsors may add additional elements to the project not previously considered by project managers. They also may identify additional requirements as a project commences. Scope creep is not uncommon across different industries due to project complexity and competing stakeholder interests. Unfortunately, scope creep has long-term negative consequences, severely impacting budgets, deadlines, and, sometimes, reputations.
What are the consequences of scope creep?
Scope creep can have a detrimental impact on various aspects of a project. The following are all potential negative impacts that scope creep causes to projects:
- Budget overruns: As the scope expands, so do the required resources, leading to increased costs and potentially exceeding the allocated budget.
- Missed deadlines: Additional work takes time, and without adjustments to the schedule, scope creep inevitably leads to delays in project completion. A classic example is the Denver International Airport’s baggage handling system. Intended to be a state-of-the-art automated system, the project faced numerous delays and cost overruns due to scope creep, ultimately taking 16 months longer than planned to complete.
- Reduced quality: When teams are forced to rush or make compromises to accommodate scope creep, the overall quality of the deliverables may suffer.
- Increased workload: Scope creep often translates to more tasks and responsibilities for the project team, potentially leading to overwork, stress, and burnout.
- Stakeholder dissatisfaction: Ultimately, scope creep can result in a final product that deviates from the stakeholders’ expectations, leading to dissatisfaction and potentially jeopardizing project success.
5 common causes of scope creep.
There are several causes of scope creep.
1. Unclear project goals.
Ambiguous goals leave open spaces for scope creep to set in rapidly, which is why organizations should revisit their strategic goals. Align project teamwork with organizational goals to draw up a clear plan or expect scope creep to dominate the project.
2. Additional project requests.
Project managers can find themselves bowing to pressure. When the project is lucrative and the client is influential, there is much at stake. Even if the client is not particularly influential, the promise of future work creates a situation of wanting to meet client demands.
Unfortunately, meeting one or two extra requests can lead to significant delays and budget overruns. The client’s response may be neutral due to an imbalance between these aspects when the project manager fails to exercise strict controls.
3. Competing stakeholder interests.
Project managers should focus on the stakeholders connected to the project directly. The project manager must weigh concerns from stakeholders throughout the project but also exercise strategic leadership and focus on compromising to promote productivity rather than reacting to extraneous objectives.
4. Misalignment between management’s expectations and team’s outputs.
Often, management expectations can outweigh resources. A lack of insight into existing capabilities causes a disconnect, resulting in a lack of buy-in from employees when project managers expect too much or too little. Inappropriate work management tools, poor planning, and time-wasting processes all make an unhealthy mixture of elements that generate dissatisfaction and unwanted outcomes.
5. Poor communication between collaborating teams.
Poor communication between collaborating teams is one of the biggest problems in project management. Efficient communication between all stakeholders drives project success, but scope creep manifests when this vital element is missing. Duplicated work, delayed work, and elevated expenses characterize the project, leading to undesirable consequences.
4 examples of scope creep.
Scope creep tends to be an unexpected variable in the project lifecycle. For example, a project manager may want to please their client and make a small addition to the original scope, which seems harmless enough. The project manager soon begins to receive more change requests, and they lose control of the original scope.
Here are specific examples of how scope creep can eventually be counterproductive despite the best intentions:
1. An external client requests help with building an app.
A plan is drawn up and accepted, but the client keeps making new requests along the way. Eventually, the project manager realizes they are dealing with an outsourcing agent who has not shared comprehensive client information, resulting in continuous changes due to misunderstandings.
2. A software development team creates an integrated internal reporting system.
The marketing department suggests improvements that clash with the original design. Lack of communication with other departments causes additional change requests. A project designed to take ten months is extended to three years, accompanied by a budget eight times the original amount.
3. An internal project to upgrade the Wi-Fi system is accepted and planned.
Scope creep sets in when the financial manager and project managers are in disagreement due to a lack of budget signoffs. Internal politics results in ongoing delays and budget override.
4. A company desires a new airplane hangar built with current technology, linking it to existing administrative buildings.
The project manager orders a new system for the installation, only to realize no one has checked whether they can integrate the new system with the existing one. The budget increases by $60,000 to make the old system compatible.
Preventing scope creep and best practices.
While scope creep can be challenging to eliminate entirely, implementing proactive measures can significantly reduce its likelihood and impact:
