Scope Creep

I was on a project once where my team was hired to format training packets that Military Subject Matter Experts (SME) created.  As time went on, we started noticing that the quality of work coming from the SME’s was going down and they were struggling to write the lesson content, while managing their military commitment.  Being team players, at first under the table, we would help them by developing content to fill in the learning gasp instead of formally returning the packets.  By not returning them we were able to help improving the content of their training packets and then complete our task of formatting the packets for delivery on time.  Soon we found ourselves feeling that we could help them improved all their training packets, falling prey to the phenomenon known as scope creep (Portney, et al, 2008, p 346).  I don’t think this scope change ever became a formal change in writing but informally we were authorized to change our task scope.  We had a little problem with the new time line, we weren’t given as much time are requested and we had to adapt our own process to include the new change control system process that was developed to ensure the SME had a say in the approval of the content before we could finalize the training packets for delivery. 

Looking back I don’t know if things could have been completed differently or if the scope creep was a bad thing.  All members being professional and sharing an invested interest in the training wanted to create the best training possible, in turn causing our own scope creep for ourselves.  The contract ended before our efforts could be judged.  What I think I might have done differently is upfront I would have evaluated the skill set of the team both the ID’s and the SME’s and maybe proposed the scope change to allow ID to create lesson content in writing.  But I know because most project are won based on money and sometime the lowest bid wins even if it’s not the best.  I don’t think anything could formally have been done simply because by the time our team came aboard we were already on the down side of the contract.  Also for us to have a bigger part in the task we would have to be paid out of the PM’s project slush fund (and we were) because working on DOD contracts for the most part there isn’t much negotiating for more money. 

Reference:

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.