What Is Scope Creep and How Do You Prevent It?

People often underestimate the project manager’s role until they witness a project falling off track. 

When the team is facing an increase in requirements and starts wondering why they’re suddenly doing more work than predicted, their project is most likely a victim of scope creep.

Scope creep is a widespread phenomenon in project management, and managers take many actions that seem unnecessary or bureaucratic to prevent it. So, the next time you squint your eyes at certain protocols, trust they may have been implemented to avoid serious consequences down the road.

But before it comes to that, let’s explore what scope creep is, which factors cause it, and if project managers can actually avoid it.

• Scope creep refers to adding requirements beyond the previously agreed project scope at the client’s or stakeholders’ request.
• Gold plating is similar to scope creep, but in this case, the project team adds additional requirements on their own, without a request from a client or stakeholder.
• Common scope creep causes include poor scope definition, the manager’s inability to collect all requirements properly, and bad communication.
• A sure way to avoid scope creep is to clearly define the project scope before the project starts and create a change control plan.

What is scope creep? 

Scope creep happens when stakeholders add requirements to the original project scope. This leads to the project team doing more work, often within the same time and budget constraints.

It’s common to make changes to the project while it’s under development, but these changes must be approved and synced with the budget and deadlines. Otherwise, scope creep threatens to cause project failure.

Scope creep vs. gold plating

Gold plating, another project management term often confused with scope creep, happens when the project team takes the initiative to add extra features, use better materials, or improve the end product in any other way.

The main difference between scope creep and gold plating is the source of the changes made to the original scope. Scope creep is caused by additional client requests, while gold plating refers to the changes made by the project team.

Some of the possible reasons for gold plating are:

• Improving the project in the eyes of the client,
• Gaining approval from management,
• Showing off the team’s abilities, and
• Masking product deficiencies.

While gold plating can result in a happy and recurring customer, it can also create unnecessary problems, such as:

• Upsetting the client due to unauthorized changes,
• The client refusing to accept the product due to unwanted changes,
• Setting overly high standards or precedents for future projects, 
• Burnout due to the team’s inability to manage their workload, and
• Missed deadlines because of self-imposed scope expansion.

Unlike scope creep, gold plating may occasionally lead to a favorable outcome. However, it comes at an enormous risk — so good project managers will try to avoid it as much as possible.

What causes scope creep?

Scope creep is commonly attributed to stakeholders and their additional requirements. That said, project managers can also be the ones responsible for derailing a project simply because they let new ideas get in the way of the original plans. 

The manager should always review and make adequate changes if they want to accept new suggestions from the stakeholders or the team.

No matter who the source is, the usual causes of scope creep are:

• Poorly defined project scope,
• Improperly collected requirements,
• Lack of communication, and
• Clumsy project adaptation.

Let’s learn about each in detail so that you can potentially identify and prevent them on time.

Poorly defined project scope

It’s hard to say if the project is crossing defined lines if the scope wasn’t properly defined in the first place. Defining the project scope means setting boundaries and giving a detailed description of every activity as precisely as possible.

This is why the project’s planning phase is so important and shouldn’t be rushed. Meeting with key stakeholders and getting realistic feedback from the project team is vital when defining the scope.

Improperly collected requirements

Collecting requirements during negotiating and planning is essential to avoid scope creep later on. Sometimes, stakeholders aren’t really sure about what they want or need. It’s the project manager’s job to pinpoint the stakeholders’ needs and be honest about the project team’s capabilities.

When managers, teams, and clients outline the project goals, there should be a lot of back-and-forth checking to make sure the requirements are precisely defined. Having only a general idea of the client’s vision is not clear and reliable enough because the team might start working on something the stakeholders don’t want.

Worse, detecting mistakes during the execution phase is costly and time-consuming for all parties. So, to avoid any waste, project managers should pay attention to how they gather information and details before the project starts.

Before starting the project, the manager needs to have a thorough understanding of:

• The project objectives, 
• The stakeholders’ expectations and motives, 
• Everyone’s responsibilities, 
• Everyone’s deadlines, 
• Everyone’s schedules, and 
• Everyone’s deliverables. 

Lack of communication

Communication between the manager, project team, and stakeholders should be constant and efficient to avoid any misunderstandings.

As the project is developed and the team delivers what they’ve completed, getting feedback from stakeholders in a timely manner becomes crucial to preventing bottlenecks and scope creep.

A clear lack of communication can lead to the project team not knowing whether they’re going in the right direction. If they’re not, and they keep going, redoing some activities becomes more and more expensive the further the team moves without proper feedback.

It’s the project manager’s responsibility to keep all key stakeholders informed about the project’s progress, pitfalls, or changes that might be happening. Slipping a gentle reminder about periodic report meetings or signoffs is all part of a manager’s activities.

That said, unstructured communication between stakeholders and the project team should be avoided at all costs. This could allow stakeholders to bypass formal procedures and pitch changes straight to the team, which could eventually lead to unauthorized changes and scope creep.

Clumsy project adaptation

Changes are a normal part of project development and should be handled adequately. If not, scope creep follows, and the project’s success is at risk. 

Making changes to the original project scope is alright, as long as the budget and deadlines are revised and modified accordingly.

A big part of being a strong leader is understanding priorities and being able to say “No” — especially when those priorities show signs of being replaced by whimsical requests.

Agreeing to every stakeholder’s desire can lead to being overwhelmed by unreasonable demands. This can also lead to taking on more responsibilities than the team can handle.

Scope creep example

Let’s take a hypothetical situation to illustrate what scope creep looks like.

This example illustrates a very common situation in the smartphone industry. The difference between it happening to one of the industry leaders and a rising brand is that the former wouldn’t take a big hit. Instead, a smaller company would probably find it very difficult to recover from a similar failure.

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How to manage scope creep

It’s OK to make changes to the project along the way. Remember — not every change means your team will suffer from scope creep.

Managing the 3 project constraints (scope, time, and budget) is absolutely possible and easily done when you stick to some rules and protocols.

Here are 4 things you can do to help counter scope creep:

• Clearly define the scope,
• Create a change control protocol,
• Communicate with stakeholders, and
• Charge for any changes.

Let’s go through these in more detail.

#1 Clearly define the scope

Researching and defining project requirements before discussing them with all key stakeholders maximizes the chances of project success. This way, you can get all the necessary approvals before the project begins.

The document that includes all the project’s objectives, requirements, and deliverables is the scope statement. Defining it before the execution phase can prevent unexpected problems down the road.

To clearly define the scope, you have to:

• Organize extensive discussion sessions before the beginning of the project, 
• Write down everyone’s goals and motivations, and
• Create a scope statement and ask for its approval.

Make sure your scope is well defined by using a scope statement template. We’ve prepared a free and fully editable one you can use for your next project.

Get our project scope statement template

#2 Create a clear change control protocol

The change control protocol is a plan for regulating proposed changes. The project manager should define the protocol and include it in the scope management plan and the risk management plan.

The protocol should state how to evaluate, approve, or reject changes that are proposed throughout the project’s development.

By ensuring all change requests go through the same change control process, the project manager:

• Maintains control over the changes, 
• Gets a chance to negotiate, and 
• Prevents any unauthorized changes. 

#3 Communicate with key stakeholders

An important aspect of keeping the project scope under control is making sure that all stakeholders are regularly informed about the progress of the project so that they can provide feedback.

This includes:

• Being in touch with key stakeholders from the earliest stages of the project, 
• Making sure they understand the scope of work required to complete the project, 
• Familiarizing stakeholders with the change control protocol,
• Being transparent regarding the project’s progress, and
• Arranging regular meetings throughout the project.

Making sure that everyone is always on the same page eliminates any surprises and reduces the possibility of change requests for already completed activities.

#4 Charge for any changes

Sometimes, clients can request changes during the project’s final stages or make major shifts from the original scope. That’s why many managers, especially in the design industry, resort to charging for additional changes.

This move could either dissuade the client from pursuing the issue further or persuade them to increase the budget and extend the deadline.

Project management terminology can get tricky. If you’d like to compare other easily confused terms, visit our Project Management Glossary of Terms and dive in.

Keep your projects within scope with Plaky

Thanks to project management tools like Plaky, handling all sorts of projects can be so much easier.

Plaky can help you avoid scope creep in every project simply by letting you keep all the necessary information and communicate with all stakeholders in one centralized hub. When you have all agreements written down and readily available — all project processes become more transparent, and misunderstandings are easily prevented.

Here’s how you can keep your projects within scope with Plaky:

• Outline project goals and objectives within boards where they’re visible to everyone.
• Define each activity in detail through items and confirm them with stakeholders before the team starts working on them.
• Communicate regularly within comments to keep the project’s development transparent.
• Get a notification every time an item is changed so that no one is able to modify anything originally included in the project scope without supervision.

Having a visual overview of the project’s progress and keeping track of all changes at all times is crucial in avoiding scope creep and keeping the project under control.

So, what are you waiting for? Start tracking your projects with Plaky today — your 14-day free trial is just a click away.

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