Thursday, December 6, 2012



Analyzing Scope Creep

The first step toward a successful project is to develop a plan that allows the project team to do the work required to produce the desired results in the available time for the available resources (Portny et al., 2008). 

 

     In high school and well into college I worked as a floral designer.  Floral designing has become one of my passions and I now work as a floral designer doing weddings when I can.  Floral arrangements for weddings can be a very big project depending on the size of the wedding.  I have to work with the stakeholders (bride and family), and wholesalers to order flowers and supplies. In order to control scope creep I have the bride and family members who are paying for the flowers sign an agreement after reviewing the project with them.  Scope creep is the natural tendency of the client, as well as project team member, to try to improve the project’s output as the project progresses (Portny et al., 2008).  Another way that I try to control scope creep is by meeting with the bride a few days before the wedding to go over all of the arrangements and flowers involved in the wedding.  I not only can have scope creep from the stakeholders but also from the suppliers.  I have to call ahead to the wholesalers and make sure they are carrying the flowers that the bride is asking for.  If the wholesalers are not carrying the flowers then I need to work with the stakeholders to figure out what other options would work for them.  I believe there are many risks involved when taking on this type of project.  
      A project like this can be difficult because I am the project manager, SME, and the designer therefore, I have to make sure that I schedule my time appropriately, use a change of scope document signed by the stakeholders, and have open and clear communication.  I also make sure to review the time line, analyze the task list, identify the start date for the task, and be flexible (Stolovich, n.d.).    

Resources

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.

Stolovich, H. 2009. Creating a Project Schedule. (Video Presentation) Laureate Education Inc.

5 comments:

  1. You are one busy woman; mother, teacher, student, and independent businesswoman, wow. I cannot imagine the clientele when it comes to wedding flowers, scary group of stakeholders. You mentioned that you meet with the bride a few days before the wedding but that seems like a pretty short lead time for the final product. Haven't prices been set, vendors paid, and how do you have time to make changes in your arrangements in that short of a time frame?

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  2. Tim,
    You are right about meeting with the brides two days before the wedding gives me a pretty short lead time however, I just meet with them at this point to make sure there are no changed in times and places. I am in constant contact with the stakeholders for the entire project. Thank you for being that to my attention. I did not really clarify that in my intentional post.

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  3. Jennifer,
    It was nice to hear that you keep an open communication with your client during the process of the project. In many of our resources, we have learned that open communication is crucial in the overall success of a project. In fact this week Dr. Stolovich again reminded us of keeping continuous communication with our team and clients. (Stolovich, n.d.). With recently being married, I know that I appreciated the updates and knowing that I was welcome to come in or call whenever I felt like I needed to. It is nice to hear you work with the same policy.


    Candace


    References:

    Stolovich, H. (n.d.) Monitoring Projects. (Video Presentation). Laureate Education, Inc.

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  4. First of all, I commend you for being willing to take on such a task! After having been a bridesmaid for a bride whose flowers were just "not right" on the day of the wedding, I can only imagine how stressful this could be for the floral designer as well! Of course, this is because "scope creep" is just the pejorative name given to the natural process by which the client discovers what they REALLY want (Suresh, 2005). While it seems as though you have taken all the necessary risk precautions, such as time management and strong communication with all stakeholders, in terms of a wedding, I think there is always the risk the bride will not be happy-even if you move heaven and earth trying to ensure that they are! Remember, the bride is always right-no matter how wrong she many times she may change her mind!

    Suresh, B. (2005, January). Scope creep is not only inevitable-it's natural. Retrieved from http://www.projectperfect.com.au/info_scope_creep_mgmt.php

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  5. Jennifer,
    You are very wise to use preventative measures in order to avoid scope creep from affecting the project’s budget or schedule too much, such as the written agreement and meeting with the client i.e. a communication plan. While some client requests are small and can be incorporated into the project without much grief, others can greatly affect the project (Russell, 2009). It is important that there is a change management process defined in the project charter to determine into which of the two camps project change requests fall. If it turns out that requested changes will greatly affect the project’s budget, resource and/or schedule the impact of such should be clearly presented to the client, as they are the ones with the checkbook, to let them make the decision on whether they would like to either like offer more resources or save the change for a future edition. However I guess it is best not to suggest the bride save her change request for red roses for her NEXT wedding.

    Russell, L (2009, Sept). Project Scope: Dealing with Scope Creep. Retrieved Dec 9, 2012 from Executive Brief: http://www.executivebrief.com/blogs/project-scope-dealing-scope-creep/

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