Best tips on how to identify, prevent, and manage project scope creep
Have you ever struggled with scope creep on a project and you want to know how to prevent it? Knowing how to effectively identify, prevent and manage scope creep is key to your project’s success. I want to share with you today some of the MUST-USE tools I apply to the projects I manage to prevent scope creep and stay in control of the project’s success.
First, let’s take a little refresher on what, exactly, scope creep is. Scope creep happens when uncontrolled changes to the scope come up due to interference from stakeholders or misunderstandings from the project manager. Now, let’s talk about how you can nip this in the bud and ensure scope creep doesn’t hinder the success of your project!
1 – Investigate why it’s happening
First, you’ll want to investigate why the scope creep is happening. Are there legitimate reasons for the proposed changes? Or are people just asking for stuff without understanding the ramifications of their requests? And, if this is the case, there are some simple but extremely effective ways you can get people to understand the impacts of what they’re asking for and ultimately, avoid scope creep (see next tip).
2 – Change control forms
Using change control forms is one of my favourite ways to effectively manage scope creep. Have people who are asking for changes to fill out a change control form. This is a great, systematic way to get all the information you need. It’ll help people answer the question: What are the benefits and impact of the change? Interestingly, I find that when I give a change control form to someone who’s asking for a change, they often back out of filling out the form. Suddenly, the change is not that important! This is a great way to manage scope creep and eliminate changes that don’t really need to be made.
Priority Matrix and learning how to deal with change
I absolutely love doing a priority matrix to manage scope creep and I want to teach you how to do that, as well as how to accept and deal with change. I’ve created a quick video that will run through all these tips in greater detail for you. That way, you’ll be well equipped to identify, prevent and manage scope creep so that your project will be successful. Join me over on YouTube so that we can finish this conversation and eliminate the danger of scope creep from your project!
I really hope that you found this helpful – and if you did, it would mean so much to me if you would share it on your social media.
Meanwhile, if you really are committed to mastering your next project, do consider taking my SLAY Project Management online course where I show you step-by-step how to successfully manage a project, plus you get access to every template you will need, along with detailed video instructions on how to fill them out.
