From the course: Project Management Foundations

Learn how to manage project scope

From the course: Project Management Foundations

Learn how to manage project scope

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- [Narrator] Stakeholders might push to add things to your project's scope. That's natural as everyone learns more about the project. Problem is stakeholders aren't so keen to increase the budget or lengthen the schedule to include those things. That's why you need to manage scope. That tendency for scope to increase is called scope creep. Hence, as nasty as it sounds. Someone catches you in the hall, says, "Hey, can you add this to the project and scurries off to a meeting?" Guaranteed that person expects, or at least hopes you'll add the request to the project without adjusting the schedule or budget. If you do, that's scope creep. Scope can change for other reasons. For example, the scope might not have been clearly defined upfront. Suppose the customer assumes you're familiar with their industry and doesn't think they have to tell you everything they need while you're identifying requirements. Then again, maybe the customer doesn't know exactly what they want. The best way to prevent scope creep is to identify scope clearly during planning. But what can you do if planning is over and the scope is spreading like weeds in your flower bed? First, reset unrealistic expectations. If the customer is asking for features that are clearly out of scope, point out that they aren't in the scope statement. You can talk to the customer about the schedule and budget changes needed to add to the project scope. Also, make sure the customer and your team understand that undocumented informal changes aren't acceptable. Explain that in the future, requests must go through the change management process. That way, you're in control of the scope even if it's changing. If scope wasn't clearly defined in the first place, work with the customer to renegotiate the scope so it is clear. If the customer doesn't know what they want, consider switching to an agile approach. That way, you and the customer will have opportunities to hone the scope over time. Keeping scope under control throughout your project is key to making projects successful. I've given you a list of scope change requests for the hospital scheduling project. For practice, identify which requests are out of scope.

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