Disadvantages Of Scope Creep

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The crucial phase of developing an Information Technology (I.T.) project is the planning or the requirement phase. Apparently, success and failure of an IT project mostly depend on how solid the plan is at the start. To that end, a time and cost effective planning must be conducted before starting a project to deliver a product in a timely manner to the customer or business unit; importantly, this will maximize Return On Investment (R.O.I.). Having said that, a prevention and management of scope creep are vital in order to deliver a project in a timely manner. In a nutshell, scope creep is a change in the plan outside its scope (Gurlen, 2003). Not only does scope creep delay a project, but scope creep could also add additional cost that goes…show more content…
Scope creep is synonymous to bells and whistles. Put it another way, since it is less relevant, performing something that is not included in the requirements may cost additional time and money. As discussed above, the limitations coming from both parties would eventually lead to a phenomenon called scope creep. This IT jargon does not contribute to the success at all or unless going beyond the parameters entails improving the quality of the project. Apparently, when the business unit could not precisely define what they want for the project – the IT group would also find it hard to design an effective blueprint. Consequently, as the building process goes on, either the business unit or the IT group would gain a clear understanding of what they really want or what they need to do (Gurlen, 2003). This would lead to an additional set of requirements or a modification of the existing requirements that they have (Gurlen, 2003). The new set of requirements or the modification of the existing model would entail additional labor, time and money. In the worst case scenario, the business unit may cancel the project permanently, especially if the delay and money involve is due to the poor interpretation of the IT group of the given requirements. With this in mind, the IT group can still have a greater ROI with a cost and time effective planning, coupled with practical scope creep management ideas. Since the IT group deals with non-IT professionals, it is almost impossible to prevent the scope from creeping, thereby, scope management is a better

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