Analyzing Scope Creep
Bridal Shower Scope Creep Drama
I assisted my best
friend with the planning of a bridal shower this past summer. I wish I had
known about the responsibilities and duties of project management to better
prepare us for the vast amount of scope creep that we endured from the bride
and her family members. Scope creep is defined as the natural tendency of the
client, as well as project team members, to try to improve the project’s output
as the project progresses (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, &
Kramer, 2008).
Dorisa and I
initially sat down with the bride and agreed upon a theme, budget, guest list,
and location for the event. The budget seemed to balance with the bride’s
expectations in the beginning of this project. As the planning and organization
tasks progressed, the task list seemed to get longer and longer. First, the
bride wanted to increase her guest list on several occasions. Of course, the
more people you invite the more food, seating, and decorations are needed. In
turn, this will cause an increase in the budget. The bride didn’t have extra
money allotted in her budget for the increase she demanded, so of course we had
to deviate funds from other sub tasks to please the bride.
Looking back on
this experience, we could have pulled in more stakeholders who would have been
willing to assist in the financial department. We should have consistently
communicated with the bride and her family members on the progress and updated
remaining funds throughout the project. We also could have pre-planned to use
alternate inexpensive food choices and decorations to accommodate for any
possible risks. Risk is the possibility that a project might not achieve its
product, schedule, or resource targets because something unexpected occurs or
something planned does not (Portny et al., 2008). The next time I’m asked to assist with
planning a bridal or baby shower, I feel that I’m well equipped with project management
tools to successfully complete the project and maintain/decrease scope
creep. Scope creep will happen in any
project you take on, but as the project manager (PM) you have to plan for the
worse and hope for the best.
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.
