Since I have not done much as a project manager or instructional designer in the past, I thought I would give the example of a camping trip to show how something that sounds like an easy and inexpensive vacation can also end up going over budget to keep everyone happy.
Scope creep is defined in our text as, “the natural tendency of a 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, p. 350, 2008). Most of us have a desire when we plan events, even vacations, to add all we would like to do in a short amount of time.
The vacation plan can start out simple, as a camping trip in a State Park near the ocean. You can decide on which beach you want to camp near, and then figure out how much park reservations will cost, and when you need to make them. Planning early helps to ensure that your choices will be available.
Food choices for a beach camping trips sounds simple enough. Hot dogs, and all the things to go with it. Breakfast will be items that can be cooked on a camp stove easily with minimal maintenance, and clean up. You are at the beach so what do you really need, right? The planning seems great since it is a casual type of vacation, and economical since hotels are being avoided.
Once you are on vacation is when the scope creep happens, and the PM (usually a parent, or if with friends, the leader of the group) wants to make sure that everyone has a good time. You notice that nearby there are some other attractions that seem like fun, such as a boardwalk, and of course everyone wants to go there at night. It is the third night and everyone is sick of hot dogs, so the decision is made to walk to the nearby town and boardwalk, and find a place to eat there. Everyone wants pizza! Of course none of this is planned for, but everyone has credit cards (or the PM does).
The resort prices for pizza are higher than where you live, and at the boardwalk everyone wants ice cream, and to play some of the carnival games. Now the budget has creeped forward, but everyone is still having fun.
The next day is fine and everyone is happy to eat hot dogs again. However all the junk food is gone to go with the hot dogs, so someone goes into town to replenish the chips, nachos, and other fun stuff, and brings back more due to the beach atmosphere and exercise increasing appetites. Of course the prices are much higher than at the discount club grocery store. However, everyone is happy.
As the weekend draws near the campground gets more crowded, and the weather gets colder as it tends to do on weekends. That night hardly anyone sleeps because of all the parties going on, and the dogs barking. So the next morning it is raining, and everyone is in a rotten mood, and decides to drive to a motel or hotel where they can get a nice hot shower, and watch television, and have something besides hot dogs and pizza, and a quiet night of sleep for the long drive home. Another break in the budget, but everyone had fun!
For next years vacation the planning and saving will start sooner, and there will be extra in the budget for the unforeseen events.
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.Images:
Camping: https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRcd2edD0vMGGcB0q9gKXbuRwaLaRLnly--guk9P6bAjqhS_k2O
Hot Dogs: https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTkQYyrksvH_10zQppp6u_54SXfVRWsvm9fNPZ4y8AG5nH29FPnaw
What an awesome analogy for scope creep. I haven't done a lot of project management either and this was a great way to explain scope creep to those who aren't very familiar with the concept. Our family goes on a lot of vacations and camping trips so this example was near and dear to my heart. I think this illustrates why, in project management, it is so important to define the project early on. It is also important to address scope creep once you've defined the project. By letting the team know from the beginning that "great ideas" will arise during project execution, but if they cause the project to go off target that they most likely won't be approved. I think there are times when scope creep is a product of exceptional team members, everyone wanting to make the end product better, but the it's the project manager job to ensure that an appropriate cost benefit ratio is maintained.
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to comment Matt. My parents always took us camping to save money, but I understand how much work it was for my mother who usually did the cooking. She did get help with the clean up. We would go fishing, and usually by the 3rd night of eating fish we needed a change.
DeleteWe camped in almost every state in the US, and that was great to do when I was younger. I always will admire my mother for never complaining about our no frills vacations. She was pretty much the budget maker in the house, and this gave us a lot of opportunities to see places that I never would have seen.
I do remember the whole family getting together to plan vacations, and we all got to have some say in the decisions, so it was always fun.
This is a perfect example of scope creep! I traveled to London for a friend's wedding last fall and had a similar experience. We didn't plan every detail of the trip (allowing for hangout time and exploration), however it was hard to determine a budget. I had a general budget set but I went quite a bit over due to unexpected excursions. It was a fun trip, but I should have planned more for unexpected costs. As you mentioned, planning a trip (sooner rather than later) can help avoid some costs but then leaving enough room in the budget as a contingency is something I will do next time.
ReplyDeleteHi Gayle,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great way to explain scope creep. I think I have had several of those types of vacations. Here is another example. You decide that one weekend you are going to clean your house. Nothing spectacular, but you are going to clean out some drawers in the kitchen. You start with the junk drawer. Every kitchen has one. You notice that as you clean out the junk drawer there are a lot of colored pencils that belong to your daughter so you bring those to her room. As you enter her room, it is like WWIII has gone off in there and you can't just put the pencils down, so you start cleaning up her room. This is a major undertaking and takes up most of the day. Finally you are at a place when you can store the pencils. But, you notice that several of the toys in her room have bad batteries, so you go on the hunt for batteries. You check he study, and while you are in there, you straighten up the desk, no batteries. You check back in the kitchen where your original junk drawer still sits open, no batteries. Then you remember that your husband keeps them in the big freezer in the garage. As you get the batteries, you notice that the freezer is iced over on the inside so you transfer evertything in that freezer to the little freezer and defrost this one. While it is defrosting, you go back into the kitchen put the new batteries in the toys and brink them to your daughters now clean and picked up room. You finish the junk drawer while the freezer is defrosting and then it is time to mop and pick up all the dripping water from the freezer. This is why it talks ALL day to clean out one junk drawer in the kitchen!
Haha! That is so funny. Too bad it is true. Maybe the to do list and stay with it, no scope creep allowed in cleaning out the kitchen drawer.
DeleteNice. I'm sure everyone has found themselves in the same or similar situation as your vacation. The best plans seemed to be derailed by spontaneous circumstances in this case the campers wanting some variety in their diets. I don’t know, maybe when shopping for camping food if the campers had a say in what they wanted for the trip then it might have been less likely for them to want to divert from the camping menu.
ReplyDeleteRocque, have we been camping together?? ;) Your story definitely sounds familiar. I like that you described an event that you’ve experienced outside of the workplace because it helps me look at project management from a fresh perspective. What I think you story illustrates so well is that we often plan for a project wearing rose-colored glasses, even though we may have all the evidence we need that it won’t be that simple. How many times have I gone camping and blown my vacation budget when we ran out of beer or decided we it would be fun to splurge on dinner at the fish house that looks over the ocean, or a hotel with a hot shower and cable TV for the last night? I admit it’s been more than once. It’s just hard to admit that even the best-laid plans will go amiss. Our challenge as project managers is to face this difficult truth and truly plan from the start for scope creep to be a part of the project. As you mentioned in your beach camping example, the best approach is to be prepared by padding the budget from the start, or being prepared to make other concessions like cutting the vacation short when the money runs out, or (don’t tell my husband!) accepting that a cheap box of cold pop-tarts for breakfast really won’t destroy the trip. ;)
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