Will Project Creep Cost You Or Create Value

Mediators scope adjustments to accommodate new realities or incorporate new capabilities backside pay off, but only when theyre done very intentionally and with a hard-nosed insistence on demonstrating up front where the money is going to come from. Such vigilance doesnt just happen, which is why for every(prenominal) story like Infants, theres probably three or four that speak to the dangers of creep. Need an example? retrieve of the Big Dig, the highway see to it to put Bosons central artery underground, in which scope flip-flops were all overly casually agreed to when they were noticed at all.Construction for this determine began in 1991 and was supposed to take 10 historic period and cost $4. 9 billion. Current proposalions suggest that more realistic figures are, at minimum, 14 years and $14. 6 billion. You treat every project as utterly unique, none of the learning from one project to another-?which fundamentally has to do with recognizing patterns-?transfers over, say s Steven Wheelw pay, a professor and senior associate dean at Harvard Business School (HOBS) whose research focuses on crossway and process development.And just what is this relevant learning Wheelw redress is referring to? Conversations with project managers who have a track record of success underscore the importance of adopting, in the initial supply phase, key frameworks, rules, and structures to tick The right people have defined the projects scope. The projects boundaries have been sharply delineated. The advert of potential alterations or slippage raise be quickly calculated.In the implementation phase, the challenge is to organize the work so as to minimize the immanent uncertainties. Whether youre the manager or the executive sponsor of any major project, a solid methodology thats excellent to creep can make it easier for you to decide, in the moment, which project add-ions to say yes to and which to pass on. The planning phase A surprising number of projects get under way without a thorough attempt to define their parameters, specs, and implementation characteristics.Haste is the chief culprit here, says Dave Nonfat, who brings 40 years of industry project management experience to his role as Enron operations adviser at HOBS and project manager for the renovation of one of the schools main classroom buildings. Theres a minimum lead time that all projects require, says Nonfat, and its the responsibility of the projects manager to know what that lead time is and to procure that it not squeezed. Here are the key tasks of the planning phase Differentiate scope from purpose.As you define the parameters of a project, its critical to separate its scope from its purpose. A projects purpose is the general benefit it impart provide to the organization, explains Alex Walton, a Winter Park, AAA. Based project con- Copyright C 2005 by Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. alone rights reserved. 3 Project Creep (continued) sultan whos work ed with computer, aerospace, financial, and medical/nutritional companies. Its scope comprises the particular elements (or product attributes) that the project group can control and has agreed to deliver. For example, a projects purpose may be to create a new food item that get out increase sales by $20 million. But the aggroup developing the product needs to know what features the product must have and what the budget for producing the product will be. This is the information that a three- to four-sentence document known as a scope statement provides it spells out how the team int block ups to achieve success and, thus, the criteria on which it will be evaluated. Involve key stakeholders.Make sure that you have the right people defining the projects scope. If you dont have all the affected stakeholders and sponsors at the table, either you wont get an accurate appointment of the critical dependencies and functionalities or you wont have the people who can ensure that the projec t hews to those critical dependencies and functionalities, says Brian Dobby, a Enron project manager for Meddles, a Mason, Ohio-based subsidiary of Custodianships, who oversees the installation of electronics systems in health care facilities.For this reason, its crucial to include the end users perspective and needs when youre scoping out the functionality thats required, says Wheelwright. In the renovation of Baker Library at HOBS, for example, project planners solicited susceptibility members input about the prototypes of the new office spaces that were being designed for them. Plan in the aggregate. Getting the right people involved in defining the scope ND devoting sufficient time to the project planning phase arent enough to ensure that the project has clear boundaries, however. Organizations also need to do aggregate project planning, says Wheelwright, in which they develop a strategy that lays out a pattern and rhythm for when subsequent projects will occur. This is especi ally important for new product development. Without such a schedule for future projects, a product engineer with a new humor can grow concerned that it will never be implemented as a result, theres a strong temptation for the engineer to try to slip that idea into the product thats currently in placement-?regardless of its impact on the cost and schedule.The analysis of prior projects serves as a valuable adjunct to aggregate planning. For example, study the past 1 0 internal IT projects your company has undertaken what patterns emerge? The findings can help you identify and better prepare for potential trouble spots in the IT projects that are on the docket for the coming years. Set the rules. One last piece Of work in the planning phase that can minimize the chances of project creep involves creating buffers or rules that make it difficult for world-shattering hanged to occur without conscious discussion and approval. For instance Set up a change control board.In highly struct ured project environments, such a group is responsible for gathering information about the impact that a proposed change will have on the schedule, budget, or scope voting on the proposed change and then sending a request-for-change document on for the project sponsors signature, says Bob Tartan, a senior advisor who specializes in IT and telecommunications projects for Haverford, pa. -based PM Solutions. Thus, for an IT project affecting the sales, marketing, and logistics departments, the change intro board would comprise senior managers from severally of these units.