The Assignment: Describe a project, either personal or professional, that experienced issues related to scope creep. What specific scope creep issues occurred? How did you or other stakeholders deal with those issues at the time? Looking back on the experience now, had you been in the position of managing the project, what could you have done to better manage these issues and control the scope of the project?
Not too long ago I was tasked with a project that required we create an e-learning environment for clinical staff in the area of customer service. The clients were very specific about what they wanted the clinicians to learn from the training. We spent a good many months with the IT team and the SME’s and we produced what we thought would be an excellent training, meeting all the needs of the client. A piloting of the program was set up and the client selected the first clinicians to participate. The pilot was to be open for three weeks allowing the participants to go in at their leisure to evaluate the training. After three weeks we were supposed to have their evaluations back. However we did not. This failure of the participants to respond set us back as we had to contact each of them and remind them of the timeline. As it turned out of the initial 25 evaluations we only got back six. The project was set back several weeks and the client never got the feedback that they wanted. While this was not our fault, we were still now off the budget and timeline.
Not too long ago I was tasked with a project that required we create an e-learning environment for clinical staff in the area of customer service. The clients were very specific about what they wanted the clinicians to learn from the training. We spent a good many months with the IT team and the SME’s and we produced what we thought would be an excellent training, meeting all the needs of the client. A piloting of the program was set up and the client selected the first clinicians to participate. The pilot was to be open for three weeks allowing the participants to go in at their leisure to evaluate the training. After three weeks we were supposed to have their evaluations back. However we did not. This failure of the participants to respond set us back as we had to contact each of them and remind them of the timeline. As it turned out of the initial 25 evaluations we only got back six. The project was set back several weeks and the client never got the feedback that they wanted. While this was not our fault, we were still now off the budget and timeline.
Portny et al. (2008) defined “scope creep” as “the natural tendency of the client, as well as project team members, to try to improve the project’s output as the project progresses. In this case the clients really wanted feedback before release of the program and the failure of the participants they selected to respond back made them question what they had in the program. I suggested that rather then select participants we reopen the pilot to the clinician population and let them decide if they wanted to take the course. The client was leery but agreed. We sent out a blast email to all potential clinicians and said that the pilot will be open one week and that we would appreciate feedback immediately after completion. Of the 42 who volunteered we received 33 responses back within the week and within ten days all responses were in. So in this case of scope creep we were put off the time line by two weeks but were able to really get a feel for the impact of the training by switching gears as we did.
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.
I commend you and your team on coming up with a great alternative for the client-selected clinicians who failed to fulfill their responsibitities. Your experience provides an example of the challenges that can plague project managers. As a project manager, you may have to manage individuals who you have not authority to direct. Sometimes these individuals are in the client organization, so at least you have leverage by addressing the issue to the client management team. However, when a third party is involved that doen't directly report to either the client or the organization responsible for the project, it results in a potentially risky project step. That is when you have to rely on indirect influence, negotiation, or, as you pointed out, creative options.
ReplyDeletePortny et.al. (2008) speaks to the importance of responsibility and accountability. These should go hand in hand, but sometimes individuals or groups are identified as responsible for a task, but are not held accountable for the task. As a project manager, this is a frustrating problem as you know first-hand.
Reference
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.