Project Description
When I was pregnant with my son, I wanted to convert one of the bedrooms into a nursery. At that time, the room was being used as an exercise room. We had another room downstairs that could easily be changed into the exercise room. I was fine with moving the exercise equipment downstairs, replacing the carpet, painting the walls, and decorating the room.
Scope Creep Issues
My then husband and I moved all the exercise equipment downstairs and started to rip up the old carpet. As we were working, we discussed how small the room was and how we could use another small bedroom next door as a playroom when our son got older. This room was now being used for storage. The two rooms were connected by a common closet that could be accessed from each room. My ex-husband decided to remove the closet and combine the two rooms into one larger bedroom. In order to do this, he would also have to remove parts of the wall around the closet. As the work progressed, he also decided to rewire the rooms as the wiring was old and 110 volts. He wanted to update to 220 volts (I am remembering this from 19 years ago, so I may be wrong). He wanted to complete all this work with just him and the help of his brother. My ex-husband is not the handiest of men, but his brother has remodeled a few homes. The only problem was that my husband worked the night shift and had Tuesdays and Wednesdays off, while his brother worked days with weekends off. The project ended up costing a lot more than what I had envisioned. Most importantly, the project was not completed until my son was almost ready to sleep in a toddler bed – two years later.
Dealing with Scope Creep Issues at that Time
My son ended up sleeping in a crib in our bedroom. This was not too much of an inconvenience, since my husband worked night shift. The bedroom also had room for a changing table and rocking chair, although it was a little cramped. My ex-husband and his brother would try to get together on the weekends to work. My ex-husband would come home from work and try to sleep for a few hours and then get up to work. However, his brother could only come one or two weekends each month, as he was also remodeling his own house at the same time. My ex-husband did not have the skills to do the construction and rewiring work on his own. Since the project took so long, we were able to come up with the extra money as it was needed. The project did create some tension between us, as I did not really want all that work to be done. It was also hard to convince my son to sleep in his own room once it was ready. He was scared to be in a room by himself. It took about a year until he stopped coming to our bedroom during the night.
Vince Budrovich (n.d.) asserts that every project requires the management of five variables: time, resources, expertise, quality, and scope. Scope is the variable that balances the other four variables until it begins to grow (creep). Once scope creep occurs, the project team needs to trade-off among the first four variables. The scope creep of this project increased the time, money, and people needed to complete the project. My ex-husband and I could have done the work that I originally wanted. Since neither of us had the skills necessary to do the work that my ex-husband wanted, this also increased the need for expertise.
Better Management & Control of Project Scope
In retrospect, if I was the project manager, I would have known that it is natural for people (clients) to want to improve the outputs of the project as it progresses (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, & Kramer, 2008, p. 346). I could have told my ex-husband that I was really excited about all the new ideas, but maybe we could complete my plans first and then we could commit to redoing the rest of the work (Stolovitch, n.d.). I would have had my ex-husband and brother make a plan of how much time and work effort would be needed for the changes to the project (Portny et. al., 2008, p. 346-347). We should have then analyzed how the impacts the change would have on the project’s schedule, quality of finished product, costs, and work effort (Greer, 2010, p. 36). We should have discussed any added benefits or drawbacks and consequences to the targeted completion date (McGriff, 2000, p. 62). If this would have been a formal project, we should then have updated the project scope statement and project plan and obtained written sponsor approval of the change and revised plan (Greer, 2010, p. 36).
References:
Budrovich, V. (n.d.). Practioner voices: Barriers to project success. Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). Video.
Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.
McGriff, S. J. (2001). Project management for instructional design in higher education. Retrieved from http://wgraziadei.home.comcast.net/~wgraziadei/PM/PMHigherEd.pdf.
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.
Stolovitch, H. (n.d.). Project management concerns: Scope creep. Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). Video.
