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.