EDUC 6145: WEEK 6 Scope Creep
Describe a project, either personal or professional, that experienced issues related to scope creep. What specific scope creep issues occurred? How did you or other stakeholders deal with those issues at the time? 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?
Scope creep occurs when a project acquires new, unauthorized features that potentially disrupt the budget, timeline, scale, or other major points of a project (Larson, 2009).
For me, scope creep occurred at the very start of the 2022-2023 school year. For context, I was starting at a public school here in Houston after being at a charter school for seven years. For seven years, I was provided clear, consistent (almost overbearing) communication about expectations around testing and grading. I soon came to realize that this would no longer be the case at my new school.
The "project" in this case was our Beginning of the Year (BOY) exam. This exam was designed to filter out students who were already capable of higher-level math classes. We met as a team collectively twice before we administered the exam. In both instances, the grading scale was changed and the expectations of deliverables for teachers changed.
On the day of the exam, it was announced that not only would the exam filter students into higher math courses, but it was decided that the exam would now also filter students into intervention classes. With the additional course added to the filter, teachers would now have to manually score and record all of the student work, which was an automated process prior to this new decision. Now that it was no longer automated, the grading scale changed yet again. Being new to the school, I did not have much to say about the changes, however, my colleagues and others who were involved with the testing were particularly upset.
With the addition of this new procedure, teachers would have to extend the testing window and use the first two weeks of planning time to grade all of the assessments and filter out students. This decision was made by the head of the math department and the 8th-grade math chair without discussing it with the rest of the team.
Once testing was complete we met as a team and shared our disparagement of the changes. Not only did this affect students, but it also affected the continuity of learning and planning that teachers should have been focusing on.
Reflecting back on this situation, I would have had the exam and its components already preplanned before school started. The person in charge of the testing administration admittedly did not spend time looking ahead to prepare for the test, thinking that it was just any other test to be given and that it should be "simple." Our project suffered from an element of scope creep described by Larson as " lack of clarity, and depth" (Larson, 2009).
Resources
Larson, R. & Larson, E. (2009). Top five causes of scope creep ... and what to do about them. Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2009—North America, Orlando, FL. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
Hi Joshua,
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the definition of scope creep in this same article, I thought it was interesting that it gives various reasons for scope creep. In my blog post, scope creep happens because the project team wanted to “add more value” (Larson & Larson, 2009). I noted in your post that lack of communication was an added risk, contributing to the negative feeling of the teachers. The job of the PM is to keep everyone on target by communicating clearly and concisely (Walden University, n.d.).
References
Larson, R. & Larson, E. (2009). Top five causes of scope creep ... and what to do about them. [Paper Presentation] PMI® Global Congress, North America, Orlando, FL. https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/top-five-causes-scope-creep-6675#
Walden University, LLC. (Producer). (n.d.). Communicating with stakeholders [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.ed
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog post about your experiences with scope creep at the start of the 2022-2023 school year. You did a great job of articulating how sudden and unauthorized changes can disrupt not only the project but also the entire team’s workflow and the students' learning experience.
ReplyDeleteThe shift in expectations and procedures for the BOY exam, especially the last-minute addition of filtering students into intervention classes, clearly exemplifies the challenges of scope creep. Your situation underscores the importance of clear communication and thorough preplanning, as well as involving all stakeholders in decision-making processes. The frustration you and your colleagues felt is understandable, given the significant impact on your planning time and the overall effectiveness of the exam.
Your suggestion to have the exam and its components preplanned before the school year starts is crucial. Ensuring that the person in charge of testing administration is well-prepared and aware of the exam's importance could have prevented many of these issues. Your insights into the necessity for clarity and depth in project planning, as highlighted by Larson, are spot-on and a valuable lesson for anyone facing similar challenges.
Thank you for sharing your story. It provides a real-world example of the effects of scope creep and offers practical solutions for better managing projects in the future.