Scope Creep

As it happened, as soon as they left the 2nd meeting about the aseptic project charter, Eva received several e-mails from Sales and Marketing and from Corporate engineering.



After reading them, she called Edge of Control in to discuss how to manage the new demands and expectations from key stakeholders.



First we explained that this is called scope creep! As a project moves along, more information is uncovered, new external events occur and suddenly the project is having to solve climate change as well as world hunger.



Sounds easy but the first step is holding firm to initial commitments. The charter was built for this exact eventuality. Several questions need to be asked:


1. How does this new item relate to the original issue and objective of the project?

2. What risk to project success and the issue does it bring with it? And what is the risk to the project if it is NOT dealt with?

3. Will it impact the three cornerstones of a project – time, quality and cost? And by how much?

4. Can it be resolved with a stand alone project that is run concurrently? Do you have the resources to do it this way?



The folks at Curds and Whey went over this list as well as determining what stage of the process it would impact (they used a process map to help with this) and with some debate by different parties, the scope of the project was increased to include two of the points, two were set up as independent but concurrent projects and the last two were rejected.



There was no doubt that this would not be the last time they would have to face the issue of scope creep, but now a system was in place to consider the impact of the creep and determine if they should go down any other future paths.

Chartering a Project

While waiting to hear back about the budget, the Munleytown team decided to go ahead and launch the aseptic packaging line project. According to the messages sent from head office, especially marketing, this new line was in direct alignment with the corporate strategy for 2010 and the next 5 years. So, the risk of the project being cancelled seemed low.

To make sure the team was headed in the right direction and all together, Eva had the team work on developing a Project Charter.

A project charter basically consists of the title, a description of the issue or situation, the impact it has on the business and what the key objectives are. It outlines the scope of the problem, overall timing, key metrics and milestones and the who the key stakeholders are.

While a charter should be an evergreen document, Eva knew it was essentially a contract between her, the team members and the key stakeholders. If something changed, whether it be scope, timing, personnel or even the objectives, the charter would need to be updated, reviewed and signed off again.

The first go-round for the team produced a charter with a lot of holes. They just didn't have enough information. Who should be involved? What was the impact of the issue? When did it need to be done by? What is the right amount of stretch in setting the goals? What are potential risks to the project itself? But now the team was in agreement about what questions needed to be asked and was able to fill in the blanks during the 2nd chartering meeting.

Leaving the 2nd meeting, Eva felt good about her team and a lot more confident that they were all heading in the same direction to solve the problem.