Mitigating Scope Creep in IT Project Management and Planning Introduction Of the many factors that can impact the performance of projects, the issue of scope creep is among the most insidious and difficult to stop once it begins. In an attempt to please as many stakeholders has possible, especially in enterprise software projects, project managers often will allow incremental additions to project plans and scope definitions (Sircar, Choi, 2009). As the scope of a project continually creeps wider, the project's plan and deliverable dates exponentially increase given dependencies on resources and previous tasks being completed (Zhu, Li, Wang, Chen, 2010). In addition to these time drains, scope creep will often cost the typical enterprise software project millions of dollars, lost credibility of the initiative within the broader enterprise, and paradoxically, lack of original project completion due to the project trying to increasingly be all things to all stakeholders (Zhu, Li, Wang, Chen, 2010). The hard reality is that scope creep, while well-intentioned at the time to placate stakeholders, often leads to cost and project overruns (Sircar, Choi, 2009). As Baker and Greer have stated in their best practices, there are specific strategies and approaches to minimizing scope creep and keeping project review cycles on track to fulfillment (Baker, Greer, 2011). The authors use a series of examples of how complex Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are to implement,
As most projects are required to meet deadlines with resource restrains, managing the scope creep through careful planning and control is an essential ability to every project manager. There are a number of causes for scope creep in projects, and these will be addressed in the next chapters as well as a few solutions to prevent further damage to the project.
A good project scope points clearly to the expected end results and deliverables of the project. At the planning stage of the overall IT Merger Project, the project planning team had a common overall vision of “get $210 million in annual saving by consolidating the IT structure”. The PCNet project was a sub-project that shared this common overall vision. This overall vision was then systematically drilled down into detailed tasks and sub-projects with schedule carefully deliberated with the dependency of the projects and resources utilized being taken into considerations. A Gantt chart showing the schedule and dependency of task was then created (as shown in Exhibit 2 in the case). The PCNet project team adopted similar approach for project planning (as shown in Exhibit 4 in the
Scope creep can be avoided if the scope is built correctly with help from the entire team. If I as a project manager not define with clarity what is going to be included, the project scope will change again and again, affecting both, the duration and the cost of the project. The triple constrain concept here is key, given the fact that time and cost will be affected. The best strategy to avoid scope creep is develop and use a correct scope management plan.
The effect of integrating a new system, agreeing, and understanding a new project in the company or a new system is project scope. It is mandatory that everyone understands how and why the company will improve from upgrading to a new system. Agreeing what is best for the company and why it is important to update the system is also a must. It is important to a company for project scope because it can deal with everyone that is in the company and make sure that everyone is on the same page.
This is confirmed by Horn (2012:406) that ‘when you consider that only about a quarter of projects complete on time and budget’. Early contingencies planning for the effects of scope creep should be interlaid within the RiBS to manage any financial allowance for such eventuality and to communicate the changes across the project and organisation.
The article Scope Management in Agile Versus Traditional Software Development Methods (Israr Ur Rehman, et al, October 2010, NSEC ’10: Proceeding for the 2010 National Software Engineering Conference) discusses the importance of scope management, it’s role and impact on a project, and how it alone can lead projects toward failure. “A well-defined and well managed scope is very important for a qualitative, cost effective and timely completion of the project (page 1). The replacement of traditional software development (Waterfall) by agile software development methods is very apparent in cost, resources and time for the work.
* As explained in the text, scope creep is very common in projects. A formal change control management is difficult to enforce and more often overlooked near the end of the project when scope creep is more common. Recommend strategies to enforce change control
2b. Using the creeping requirements as an excuse seems to be a mistake as it implies project mismanagement. If the project had been properly monitored scope creep could have been detected early and managed.
The second project I chose as an example of scope creep was the Failure of the FBI’s Virtual Case File Project. The project was initiated in 2001 and was projected to take three years to complete but was cancelled in 2005 after having been in progress for 4 years and exceeded projected costs by 200 million dollars. The project consisted of three parts, the first two parts being roughly completed consisted of upgrading hardware
The successful implementation and subsequent meaningful use of information technology solutions within a health care organization is a challenging and iterative process. The organization must engage in careful and ongoing strategic and tactical planning to ensure that the implemented technology will ultimately be effective and beneficial for its practitioners, staff, and patients.
In field of project management, there are a plethora of mechanisms under perpetual reevaluation. One specific segmentation of project management under such scrutiny pertains to cost duration, which is the time and monetary costs of completing individual tasks within the project’s critical path (IBM Knowledge Center, 2016). The process of monitoring and evaluating the time and financial impacts of each task is referred to as cost duration analysis (IBM Knowledge Center, 2016). A chief concern of cost duration analysis is identifying tasks within the project’s critical path which can reduce project duration (PMI, 2013). A common approach to reducing a project’s duration is task “crashing” (PMI, p.181). According to The Project Management Institute (2013) crashing refers to the process of methodical determining the financial value of increasing a critical path task’s resources in order to decrease project duration (p.181).
Uncontrolled scope changes are known as scope creep, which mostly occurs during project execution, which often result in rework, cost overrun and failure to deliver projects on time (Jordan, 2010).
The information system that I will analyze is the bus route tracking module that can be found within the “CarolinaGO” mobile app for iPhone. The entire CarolinaGO app is a student-run tech organization. It is maintained by working UNC Chapel Hill students, who are noted for forming an “award-winning app team.” Within the app, users are prompted that any student can join by contacting the organization’s advisory board. Given the complexity of the app, the bus route tracking module is found within one of the four sub-systems that can be found within the application; those being “Connect,” “Move,” “Eat,” and “Engage.” Each subsystem provides different affordances and functionality. The bus route tracking module is under the “Move” subsystem,
A comprehensive project scope analysis serves several benefits that permit a company to guide the dream of a project to a successful completion. One benefit is transforming the idea of the project into a working concept. Once the concept is developed, project details can be mapped out. Scope analysis outlines each step of the project in a detailed manner. The primary benefit to this is it aligns the project so that the final product will be consisted with the original goals/objectives. By outlining each step, scope analysis increases the likelihood that the project will stay within budget and time constraints as well as meet predetermined specifications and quality parameters.
This report is produced for the purpose of critically analysing the project life cycle of the ERP implementation at ABC Technologies. To begin with the ERP implementation at ABC could be called as a project when analysed against different definitions in theory. Due to the characteristics such as availability of a time, cost and resource plans. On the other hand the project is following a specific life cycle which could be defined with major