Analyzing Scope Creep

This week in my EDUC 6145 Course, we have been discussing scope creep and how it can heavily affect a project. 

Describe a project, either personal or professional, that experienced issues related to scope creep.

         The project was helping my cousin getting ready for her ready and setting up for the ceremony. My cousin and I both live in Atlanta, Georgia, and she was planning a wedding in Destin, Florida, I was her maid of honor. It was a small intimate wedding on the beach. On the morning of the wedding is when scope creep began to make its way in. Early that morning, we thought that we were getting an early start, but later realized that we didn’t wake up early enough. We woke up around 6:00 a.m., for a 10:00 a.m. wedding. We began getting ready around 6:00 by taking showers and doing our hair. Eight o’clock a.m. soon rolled around, so we decided to grab a quick breakfast. Eight thirty soon approach and so we headed back to the room to get ready. We soon became overwhelmed.

What specific scope creep issues occurred?

         The time began to get the best of us causing us to run behind. It was nearing 9:00 a.m., when we realized that my cousin’s hair was not finished and we still needed to get her in her gown. Not to mention that we were supposed to leave the hotel by 9:30 to make it down to the beach. To much of my surprise, all of a sudden I hear my other cousin who was a bridesmaid began arguing with the bride about how they aren’t as close as they used to be. You can only imagine how the bride began to feel. Dr. Stolovitch said that everything will demand your attention and there will always be conflicts (Laureate Education Inc., n.d.)This entire ordeal had to be dealt with, in addition to finishing my cousin’s hair and putting her in her gown. Long story short, we didn’t leave the hotel until 10:30.

How did you or other stakeholders deal with those issues at the time?

         I have a personality that is carefree and I don’t like when things are in disarray and people are upset. In order to allow the bride to regain composure I spoke to my other cousin (bridesmaid) and told her that this is not the appropriate time to bring up this issue. In addition to speaking with her, I made a joke which made my cousin (the bride) laugh and she started feeling much better. It took the bride a minute to recover, but she began feeling much better. I also communicated with the groom about our estimated time of arrival so that he could communicate that with the preacher.

Looking back on the experience now, had you been in the position of managing the project, what could you have done to better manage these issues and control the scope of the project?

I think that I would have better managed by setting a schedule for things. I would have sat down and generated times for each task that I needed to complete on my wedding day. I would have tasked people for the set-up and possible made an agenda for the big day. Dr. Stolovitch states that you should draw from your team and turn to them and talk with them about your problems (Laureate Education Inc., n.d.). I know that some people say that bride-zillas are horrible, but at the end of the day everyone wants their fairy tale wedding. I think there are right and wrong ways to go about managing things. After all, failing to plan is planning to fail. Another preventative measure would have been to hold a team meeting to share progress and issues and to sustain productive and trusting relationships (Portny et al., 2008). Since it was such a small wedding that was dependent upon everyone’s help, things should have been better managed.

References

Laureate Education Inc. (n.d.). Monitoring Projects. Video presentation.

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.