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This is not some fictitious account but facts presented in the
form of a case study. A project in the construction industry with a budget of
$10 Million was overshot by 20%. One might wonder what would be the margin
then, clearly marking the bottom-line in red.
Root of the problem
When the builder was questioned about the glaring rise in the
overheads, that went way over the budget, "it cannot be reported as scope
creep though it turned out eventually." Haven’t we heard that before?
“Yes, we have. And before you ask, this is not my first project. I am an
experienced hand and I speak from personal experience, and that’s why 20 percent might sound whopping to you, is
inevitable to me. You speak about creep, like a leaky water pipe. Then
imagine in a massive water plant, one spot in a particular pipe will call for a
complete overhaul of the plumbing unit. Don’t assume there is a quick fix like
some adhesive pasted to block the leak. That’s a layman’s understanding.
What actually takes place is more complex and cumbersome. Assuming, this took
away a major chunk of the work from completion, you are looking at lapse in work
which translated in hours and converted in dollars and cents can lead to sever
deficit financially diminishing the returns. So to identify the root cause can
prove painfully expensive.
The lesson learned, amongst many, can be the plumbing factor –
which we naturally pay more attention and extra-cautious in the next undertaking. Then unbeknown, in
the next project there will be some other issue out of the blue – it can be a
wiring issue, for all you know.
Forces beyond
Risk is inherent. No doubt about it. But the nature of risk? How
about a team member falling sick? Or the work done by someone isn’t thoroughly
checked and impacts the development made so far? Or natural calamity or a
strike? These don’t constitute creep but do attribute to scope creep one way or
the other. Assuming a team member falls sick and the deadline has to be met.
Sometimes, driven by deadline pressure or closure on dependency, one tends to
crosscut and aim for closure. There are some risks to be taken, which may not
impact short-terms but make you pay with grave consequences in the long run.
Well, that again is a risk. So creep need not necessarily be direct, straight
and said forth.
Creep is not something that can be defined or confined to
a particular category. At best it can be contained is not clichéd. Objectively
assessing, that’s reality because every project closure will script its own
‘lessons learned’ and yet we observe failings in some form. Incredibly, some
repeated; it may not be intentional or ignorant but things that’s possible to
be overlooked as trivia can prove to be a thorn and troublesome.
To wrap it up, we would want every lesson learnt to be put into
use after all what is knowledge without application. Furthermore, the client’s
expectation of earning more for every penny needs to be professionally managed.
Expect the customer to come up with last minute surprises, that is strictly out
of scope but then you can’t say ‘no’ not wanting to offend. Hence one should
draw the line somewhere without hurting either party involved. It’s a thin line
that calls for a fine act. We don’t want scope creep – it just self-invites.
That’s scope creep. I just gave you a long-winded definition."
Scope Creep Inevitable?
Inevitable? So there is no way out? There are ways to mitigate but
Scope Creep control has everything to do with you. We started with why is
there scope creep always. And also, we stated categorically that creep
can be contained.
How do you contain scope creep? We will discuss the ways in our
next posting. Meanwhile, if you have any ideas, suggestions, theories, or
experience, please do share and educate our users.
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