And the scope is important because…

In the last piece I talked how I’ve set up my charter and the importance I place on a well defined scope. This scope document will be part of every stage of the project and is central to successful change management.

Some level of scope change has been part of every project major I’ve been part of. Recognizing and managing of this scope change or scope creep is vital to a successful project. Any changes in deliverable can negatively impact quality, cost or team workload.

First, let us define the terms.

Scope change – scope changes that come through, and are controlled by the change management process.

Scope creep – unauthorized changes that come through e-mail, verbal or written instructions that have been given. Typically the magnitude and impact of what’s being asked for is not understood by the requesting group. It usually comes in some variation if “I like what you’ve done, but if you could just…” sort of request.

A rather visible project I was managing on an aircraft interior had a seeming minor request from the airline to the furniture vendor to add a couple of snaps to anchor a curtain. This request was via an e-mail from someone in the airline procurement group to the vendor design engineer. The furniture was through stress analysis and late in a very compressed design stage, but it did not seen as a big deal so he added them and did not think much of it.

No one noticed the addition until we were in the receiving inspection of the part (that was already far past the scheduled on-dock date and threatening to hold up delivery of the aircraft) and could not find the stress engineering signoff for the snaps.

I started digging, talked to the design engineer and he forwarded me the email. We did not have the time to redo the stress calculations and make delivery so the airline got a number of very visible “do not use” placards added to their interior (which caused more drawing revisions) and the airline was not impressed with their vendor.

This is an illustration of the importance of communicating the most minor changes once the Scope document is signed off. Not going through the established change process caused the customer to be presented with an interior they did not like and a vendor they were unhappy with.