Week 6: Analyzing Scope Creep

 

I worked on a project to develop a requirements document to create a custom course management database to manage needs assessment, course catalog, schedules, and records.  The deliverable was to create a requirements document for the IT Department to create a custom course management database. 

In the project's initial phase, the PM realized that the existing processes were missing key elements.  The project scope expanded to include developing a needs assessment process to streamline the current course management process into a more efficient model that the CMS could support.  The revised scope increased the resources and timeline of the project, but it also improved the quality of the final deliverable.

As PM, I would have thoroughly investigated the project's feasibility to determine if the scope captured the complete end-to-end process. Looking back, I believe the project uncovered a symptom of inefficiency within the previous processes that resulted in inconsistent procedures, ineffective needs assessments, and reactive training support. The PM had to negotiate the discussion to troubleshoot with the team and the best choice for the project (Producer, n.d.)

I would have proposed that the project improve the existing process to lean and standardize the workflows and develop the CMS requirements after the workflow process is streamlined.  Proper formal documentation was essential to get stakeholders' approval and establish the new procedures set by the project (Producer, n.d.)

References:

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Practitioner voices: Overcoming ‘scope creep’ [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu 

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Project management concerns: ‘Scope creep’ [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu