50 Top IT Project Management Challenges

CHALLENGE 4: SCOPE CREEP

Scope creep is one of the top five reasons why a project can fail. To define scope creep, let us consider a construction company which is building a house for a client, with a well-drafted plan. During the client’s visits to the house, new items keep getting added to the plan, for example, building a wardrobe, an extra sink, more power outlets than planned initially, etc. The engineer implements the changes without documenting them on the plan and, once the house is built, there are several issues faced by the construction company:

• The house layout in the plan, and what has been built, do not match.
• The company incurs loss because the extra items bought are not charged back to the client.
• The extra electrical outlets ...