Analyzing Scope Creep
As we speak I am in the process of
relocating my salon and with that come certain issues that are sometimes out of
my control. Some specifics are as follows;
- I had to wait on the landlord of the building to finish painting and other things that he promised to do
- The moving is being done mainly by my partner who happens to work long shifts that start between 3 and 5 a.m. so he is always tired
- I have been calling local cable companies to get services started but for some reason my new address isn’t showing up in their systems
- I had at first thought I would be in the new location the beginning of this month but it seems like it will be closer to the end of this month
- It takes seven to ten days for someone to come out and inspect the location once everything is done so I can obtain a Certificate of Occupancy
At first I was freaking out a bit
but after having a discussion with my partner and letting him know my stress
and worry and also finding out that the landlord has done his part, I feel a
little bit easier since I realize that being upset won’t make things move any
faster. What has happened so far is the things
at the old salon have been taken down and being moved to the new location over
the weekend. Even though this isn’t all that needs to be done I feel better
seeing the progress. The upside to the delay is that I am not being charged
leasing fees by the owner of the new building until I receive my Cert. of
Occupancy. I just hate that I was thrown
off of schedule like I was.
Even though I had the agreement
between the landlord and I in writing, as discussed by Dr. Stolovitch, I didn’t
have a date of completion added which caused the landlord to drag his feet a
bit. So that is one thing that could have been done differently. I also could have
set specific days aside with my partner to ensure that he got his part of the
work done vs. not saying anything and letting the time go past. I could have also got pricing and schedules
set up for phone and internet for my new location a little sooner so that I won’t
have to wait for them to come out once everything is complete.
In this week’s video resource,
Managing Project Recommendations (n.d.) it is stated that the PM should List all
management tasks, code the tasks as high or low, and begin with top priorities.
I didn’t make a list of priorities which may have made things easier on my
partner since he would have known what I need to have done first and so on. I should have been sterner about the things
that needed to be done and made sure they were done in a timely matter.
Resource:
Stolovich,
H. (n.d.) Monitoring Projects. [Video Podcast]. Available: Laureate Education,
Inc. Retrieved from
Good job with your analysis of scope creep as it pertains to your project. As our course text explains the scope creep will always manage to be in all our projects. That is why it is important to plan for the scope creep or changes that may happen when planning a project. The authors of our course text explain that project managers must be prepared for the scope creep ( Portny, S., Mantel, S., Meredith, J., Shafer, S., Sutton, M., & Kramer, B. (2008) . It is important to identify all possible risks prior to starting the project and the establishing a plan that defines the risks and the consequences. Ensuring that there is change control system in place will help with managing and controlling the scope creep (Portny, et al., 2008).
ReplyDeleteIt also seems like you and your partner had a little difficulty with communicating. So you have learned an important lesson for the future. Communication is vital to any project and it is important to discuss risks and change with other team members. I am sure on your next project you will be using some of the valuable information we are learning in this course. Good luck!
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ReplyDeleteKam, Wow--you have been busy managing your own important project this week! I admire you for tackling this while keeping up with this course work. I too noted the importance of prioritizing tasks within my blog post. Without that guideline, projects tend to balloon in scope and consume more resources than anticipated. I also appreciated how you noted the importance of communication. As we prepare our own communication plans for our course project, I think we all understand just a bit more the importance of this component of project management. Perhaps you could apply our project management process to the next phase of your salon move by creating a schedule, communication plan and resource allocation plan to map out how you will set up this new salon space. It could be a neat way to see how this project process works in a smaller-scale realistic situation.
ReplyDelete(sorry I deleted my first comment because I made an error at the beginning)