We’re all familiar with boundaries. From coloring inside the lines in kindergarten to making sure your dandelion patch doesn’t grow into the neighbors back yard. Projects have boundaries too. Not only physical lines but budget limits, deadlines, and limits on the amount of effort put towards completing the project.
This week (and for the next few) I’ll be talking about project creep. Project creep or scope creep is when you slip outside the boundaries established for the project.
And while much can be said about forays outside the lines, much success can be had by paying attention to those lines. These lines should be defined when you scope out the project.
SCOPE defines the boundaries of a project: a detailed documentation of all aspects of the project: goals, deadlines, deliverables, tasks, and costs.
Why pay attention to boundaries? Because by staying within the boundaries, your project is more likely to be successful—a completed project that doesn’t run over budget, time, or resources.
And by staying focused on the goals of the project, you may have more time and energy for the next project, a concurrent project, or have more balance between work projects and the rest of your life.
When I taught project management to scientists, there were three kinds of creep that I liked to talk about. Here is a quick overview:
Effort Creep – uncontrolled increases in overall effort required to complete a project. “I’ll work just a few more weekends to catch up…”
Feature Creep – where additional features are introduced into a project after its initial scope has been defined. “Wouldn’t if be cool if we could …”
Hope Creep – where project managers or team members become overly optimistic about progress, leading to potential failure or missed deadlines. “I hope we can get this feature to work with a little more time/money/effort…”
You can see how having a well-defined scope and sticking to it can lead to more successful projects. I’ll talk about each type of scope creep in the coming weeks, with some examples—beyond the crayons and dandelions—that will help you get to know these creeps a little better.