Project Scope Creep
I once worked on a project, where the scope creep was an ongoing problem lurking around the corner. The initial scope for the project consisted of creating educational webinars that inform the group members about mentoring opportunities and scholarship program qualifications. Then as time went on, the discussion from the stakeholders became more about adding videos of the mentors to be included in the newly added virtual classrooms.
The client in this scenario gives many requests for additions to be added to the original project plan, which was to create webinars. While the project did have a budget that could absorb the duties that were being added the project, the timeline didn't change. The project manager was constantly giving deadline reminders to use at weekly meetings and emails. The extra requests were addressed by the stakeholders and Scope of Change documents were signed off on, but remained the timeline remained the same. The client was animate that July 5th was the live date and wouldn't bend on this date, though we only had nine months to create, change or rewrite the entire project.
I wished that the project leader wasn't such a pushover and was regarded as a friend of the team. But instead, the P.M was overpromising to the client and stakeholders, and under delivering on quality. In the end, the client wasn't concerned much with the lack of deliverables as much as he was excited about meeting the deadline that never moved. If the PM would have not agreed to so many additions that weren't going to get timeline consideration, then the project would have been much simpler.
Laura,
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely a difficult situation to deal with. It's made worse because the leader was a friend of the team. We've learned that a PM should under promise and over deliver, and that's obviously not the situation here. The PM should have stepped up and told the client that either the deadline needed to be moved, or there were pieces of the project that just couldn't be delivered. If the client truly didn't care as much about the lack of deliverables, then it shouldn't have mattered that some parts couldn't be completed.
With everything we've learned about project management, it seems so simple to fix something like this, but a lot of it depends on the person put in charge. I had a boss once who was more concerned with pleasing the people around him than actually meeting deadlines and performing the assigned tasks; it was so hard to work for him because I felt like I always looked bad when I had to explain that the job wasn't completed in a timely manner.
Laura,
ReplyDeleteThe project manger can be friendly but should not necessarily be friends with the team. The PM needs to be able to draw the line to keep all team members accountable. As for dealing with the client, I am not sure what the PM was thinking. How is it possible to add items to the project without taking out other items or extending the deadline? It sounds like the PM was afraid to say no for fear of losing the client.