How to Manage Scope Creep in Project Management
94This video looks at how to manage scope creep in project management.
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Video Summary:
Scope creep can cripple you project. This video goes deeper into five ways to deal with scope creep, but at a high level the best ways to control scope creep in your project are:
1) Be very thorough in your requirements gathering. Repeat the process of gathering and reviewing requirements until people are sick of talking about requirements.
2) Get sign-off from key stakeholders on the final gathered requirements. It can sound silly, but people will take a good, hard lap through the requirements if they are forced to put a signature on them that they can be held accountable for later. For some people, it may be the only time they seriously review the requirements.
3) Ensure that you have a clear, strong change control process in place -- and use it. This will ensure that all changes are thoroughly analyzed to ensure that the impact to the project is understood, and to ensure that the sponsor and other key stakeholders are on board.
4) Don't be afraid to negotiate with the requester about what they are asking for.
5) Don't be afraid to propose that the requested change is moved into a future phase, especially if it's not a critical change. This will keep the existing project moving along, and it will prevent the risk associated with making that change from being introduced into the current effort. Most requester's with non-critical changes are willing to either wait for a planned future phase, or propose their request as the future phase.