Project scope creep occurs when a series of out-of-scope actions occur in a project. Any project can easily go out of scope, which can damage the project’s potential for success. Scope creep occurs when the team realizes that the problem faced is more serious than imagined – and thereby ties to solve all the associated problems instead of focusing only on the one it should be solving. The process of scope creep can also occur when the project champion encourages the team to do this. Here the project scope must establish what the project involves and what it can achieve.
Attributes of a well-scoped project,
- It addresses the source of the problem
- It has achievable objectives
- It has time, money, and capability available to match the objectives
- It has consistent input from stakeholders
A well scoped project should have answers to the following questions at the time of finish of the project,
- What’s the defect?
- What’s the procedure to ensure quality?
- What are our improvement goals?
- How much improvement have we made in the last six months?
- How much effort is given to this problem?
- How much does this problem cost the organization?
