Scope creep

What It Means

Scope creep is what happens when a project keeps growing after its scope was agreed, and nobody changes the deadline, budgetBudgetA plan for a set period, usually a month, that lists the money you expect to receive and how you'll spend or save it. See more or staffing to cover the extra work. In its lexicon, the Project Management Institute describes it as expansion of scope that isn't controlled and comes with no adjustment to time, cost and resources. The word that matters is uncontrolled: a bigger scope that's been approved, with the plan changed to match, is a change rather than creep.

How People Say It at Work

• "This was supposed to be a two-week job."
• "Every meeting, the list gets longer."
• "That's a great idea, but it's out of scope for now."

The Breakdown

How to keep scope creep in check (Buhata's suggestion)

1. Write the scope down before work starts: what's included, what isn't, the deadline and the budget.
2. Get the person paying or sponsoring the work to agree to it in writing.
3. Log every new request in one place, however small it sounds.
4. For each request, work out what it adds in time, money and people.
5. Take that to the person who owns the scope. They approve it and the plan changes, or it waits for a later phase.
6. Check the log at each milestone, since many small additions add up.

Try it today. List everything your current project has picked up since it started, and mark which ones came with more time or money.

At home it looks like this. "Paint the bedroom" becomes paint, new trim and a ceiling fan, with the same Saturday and the same $200. Either the weekend and the budget grow, or the fan waits.

Good to Know

PMIPrivate mortgage insuranceInsurance that protects a mortgage lender if the borrower stops paying, often required on a conventional loan with less than 20% down. See more's papers point out that creep costs money and pushes back the benefitsBenefits packageEverything an employer offers on top of wages, such as health insurance, paid leave and a retirement plan, which can be worth thousands of dollars a year. See more a project was meant to deliver. The same papers draw the line where the lexicon does: once the expansion is approved and the time, cost or resources move with it, it's a managed change rather than creep.

Related Terms and Categories

• Kanban board

  A board split into columns for each stage of work, such as To Do, In Progress and Done, with a card for every task that moves across as the work advances.

• Scrum

  A lightweight framework, defined in the Scrum Guide, in which a small team delivers work in fixed-length Sprints of one month or less and adjusts after each one.

• Product backlog

  In Scrum, the ordered list of everything needed to improve a product, and the single source of work for the Scrum Team.

• OKRs

  Objectives and Key Results: a goal-setting method that pairs a clear objective with a few measurable results showing whether it was reached, usually set each quarter.

• Delegation

  Handing a task, and the authority needed to finish it, to someone else, while you stay responsible for the result.

• Standard operating procedure

  A written, step-by-step set of instructions for a routine task, so it's done the same way every time, whoever does it.

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