Scope Creep can be a killer for a project’s timeline. By definition, scope creep happens when you have a development plan in place and more work comes into the picture. The additional work could manifest as several quality issues or a new feature. As the manager of the team, you need to do two things to handle scope creep well. The first thing is to create clear boundaries that state what you and your team are planning to build for a given timeline and what is not planned for that particular timeframe (sprint, iteration, etc). In addition to the “what” and “what not”, you need to define the “when” and the “how”. The second thing that you need is a well-defined change management process that has formal approvals by stakeholders. This change management process gives you clear tools to decide whether to accept the added scope and adjust the team’s development plan or carry on with the existing plan and add the new scope to the backlog for prioritization in a subsequent development cycle.
Watch the Scope Creep tip video from The Wild West of Software Project Management series below.