A project that I have worked on, in my personal career, where I have experienced scope creep is our first project in this class. I looked at the assignment several times and just felt overwhelmed each time I took a glance at it. That was my scope creep moment because once I started the project kept growing and evolving. I did not know where exactly I was supposed to stop. I ended up doing more than the minimum. Once I turned the project in I thought about the words Vince Budrovich, “Scope creep is inevitable; build in time and money to deal with it ahead of time and best is the enemy of good.” (Budrovich, 2012). I ended up doing my whole project minus the schedule and resource allocation charts and a few other minor things during the first week’s project. Portny describes scope creep as the natural tendency of the client, as well as project team members (me), to try to improve the projects output as the project progresses” (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton and Kraemer, 2008). That was my issue, I was constantly trying to make the project look better and better and when I turned it in I just finally stopped and posted it like it was. When I got my comments back, it was only the scope that was highlighted. I felt good about the project because that meant I would only have to tweak it throughout the course. On the other hand I did a lot of work because I wanted my project to be good and I was the enemy of myself. If I had just included the minimum work in my Statement of Work that Dr. Romano required I would have been just fine but I just kept thinking there had to be more because that was the minimum.
References:
Budrovich, V. “Voices of Practitioners: Overcoming Scope Creep”. 2012. Retrieved from Laureate Education Inc.
Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
smacjackson 
Sonya,
I truly understand how your week 1 project evolved into a much bigger project than was necessary. I experienced the exact same problem during the last distance learning course, where we had to build the three online modules with very specific goals for a very specific audience. I didn’t really understand the scope of the project, but I thought I did. Therefore, what I turned in was an enormous amount of work, which did not fully match the objectives of the scope. I was a victim of scope creep without realizing what it was or even knowing the definition. I see your point that your efforts have helped you not have to do so much work, later in the project, but had it been dependent upon a budget, you would have vastly over spent the allocated resources, and your client probably would not be pleased.
I really like this course and have learned a lot about scope creep. It is one of the things I “wanted to know” from a KWL chart about project management. I agree that it’s a normal human desire to want to make the project” better”, and as instructional designers and potential project managers, we will always be aware of this tendency and implement an effective plan early in the project. Like you, I would certainly implement a good communication plan and try to listen to and discuss ideas that everyone feels would enhance the project.
However, the most important statement that I have heard about scope creep is worth remembering. In the video program, Vince Budrovich, (Laureate Education, 2012), remarked that scope creep must be “tightly” controlled and not allowed to push the project off schedule, off budget, or off it’s stated goals as related to the scope statement. Therefore, ideas and suggestions that would impact the project in positive ways should should be noted in detail, and planned as additional expansions with properly allocated resources. I really like that.
Jan
Reference
Budrovich, V. (2012). [Video Program]. “Practitioner voices: You can’t win them all”. Laureate Education, inc.
I think when it comes to our school projects, minimum is not enough, so in the end, you probably did a better thing for yourself than you realize. In these classes, particularly the ones that are going into our portfolios, I tend to think “more is better,” because I really want to showcase the best I can do. On the job, however, I wouldn’t want to needlessly add in elements that the client didn’t call for just to make the project fancier. That’s the difference between time being money and time being just time as it is for us in school.
Hi Sonja,
I look forward to working with you throughout this course.
Diana
Looking forward to following your blogs.