Managing Scope Creep

Course Overview
(Music playing) Hi everyone. My name is Lars Klint, and welcome to my course on Managing Scope Creep. I'm a freelance solution architect at larsklint. com, Microsoft MVP, international speaker, HoloLens developer, and purveyor of quality software. I've been building software systems in all sorts of different project types from tiny websites to massive telecommunication systems in the past 20 years. Scope creep is one of the most damaging things to happen to any project, but often it sneaks in on a project, or creeps, hence the name. In this course, you'll not only get the tools to combat scope creep, but also understand the cause and effect. You will learn what scope creep is and how it affects projects, find out about the real world cost of scope creep and how it affects both project teams, as well as companies. Learn about the indicators of scope creep and learn the early warning signs; poor change control, communication, and weak project management are some of the areas we will look at. Once you understand what it is and how it happens, we can then delve into how you can avoid, manage, and even reverse scope creep. There are lots of tools and methods for you to keep in your toolbox for scope creep combat. This course is designed to make you both aware and much better equipped when starting or continuing any kind of project. It will save you both time and money. I hope you will join me in taking a step to getting rid of failed projects and shape a path of success with the Managing Scope Creep course at Pluralsight.

What Is Scope Creep?
I have been working on software projects of all sizes for the past 20 years. I've been part of a one-man business project to implement a simple ecommerce option all the way up to implementing multi-million dollar billing projects for mobile telcos. And the common thread in all the projects, except for a few unicorns, have been, yep, you guessed it, scope creep. It is one of the most damaging things that can happen to a project and often it ends in massive cost blowouts, failure, or worse. I've been through them all in one way or another. This course will help identify not only what scope creep is and what happens when it rears its ugly head, but also the details of how your scope starts creeping in the first place. You'll learn about managing scope from the start and how you can educate both developers and stakeholders. There is so much to get through, so let's get started. In this module, we'll start by defining scope, but not just for your project, but also for products. Having a firm grasp on what scope is is vital to start caring for it. We'll explore the risk of having scope creep, and as you'll see they are almost unavoidable. This means you need to deal with the risks head on. We investigate what the potential consequences could be of scope creep if not managed, and then finally, an insight to the cost to industry and businesses when scope creep comes for a visit. These numbers might shock you. All right, let's get into it.

How Does Scope Creep Happen?
With an understanding of what scope creep is and how it is defined, as well as what the outcome often is, we can now start learning how scope creep comes about. In this module, we'll dive into a number of areas that can invite scope creep into your project path. Vague requirements are often not immediately obvious and can derail a project from the start. They can lead the team down the wrong path and allow individual members to take matters into their own hands. Every project needs to involve the end users in order to battle any assumptions that could pop up. There isn't a project that knows everything, and having users on hand to answer domain-specific questions is crucial. A sure way to have scope creep derail your project is a lack of change control. Not being able to handle changes as they come up, and they will, not only invites scope creep in, but also a ton of other project issues. Having a weak project management is also a way to not combat scope creep and let the indicators and early warnings go unnoticed. Gold plating is a phenomenon that can happen to the best of projects and often when the team consists of the most eager members. Without great communication, the project manager especially is left out to dry. They can't address scope creep if they don't know what's happening. We look at how hope is no solution to solving scope creep, and that team members need to constantly communicate to be on the same page. Finally, the mystery of calculating the cost of scope creep is one step closer to being debunked. We identify the real-world factors that can impact the costs when scope creep is part of the equation. So, buckle up and hang tight! This is a module full of scary creeping scopiness!

Managing Scope
Having seen the impacts of scope creep followed by how they happen in the first place, this module will shine some light on some of the many ways you can address and prevent scope creep. The first thing to do is understanding the problem the project is solving. This includes understanding both the vision of the project as the client sees it, and then understanding project requirements. You'll learn how to create an effective project vision that will create a great baseline for your project, and once the vision is in place, create the goals and objectives that will define the what and how of the project. These will log in the scope and avoid scope creep from the start. A huge part of keeping the project on track is a project initiation document that describes the deliverable and the results. You'll learn how this is created and what it needs to contain. We briefly look at user input again before diving into the multitude of tools available to curb scope creep and make your project not suffer. Lastly, we look at how to create visibility in your project to get team members and stakeholders to own and invest in keeping the project on track. So get your brain switch on and let's dive right in!

Educating Developers and Stakeholders
In this final module, it's all about education of project members and doing all you can to prepare them for the project structure and approach to limit the risk of scope creep. First, we define which roles are in a project and what each responsibility is. Then we examine how a team can be made up of different personalities and how the roles complement each other. If scope creep does set in, it is important to have a strategy for dealing with it and reversing it. You'll learn some great ways to do just that. Teamwork is crucial for any successful project. You will learn 10 benefits of getting a successful team for your project. You'll get an understanding of how scope creep happens in specific project types, and learn how to look out for what causes it. Thanks for sticking with me throughout this course. We are at the end, but there are still more tricks to learn. Let's go!