DANGERS OF SCOPE CREEP

Scope creep refers to the changes in the project scope and can happen in an
uncontrolled manner. There are some factors that attributed to this mainly looking at
the change control process. Change management process speaks to how changes
would be handled on a project. If we are having a scope creep it could be one of the
two things: It could be either we do not have project management process defined and
so changes just come in left and right. It could also be that there is project scope
change management process and it is being defined but either it’s not understood or
not followed.
Project are normally planned to have a systematic process which implementation
should follow. Regardless of what methodology you are using or industry you are in,
you are going to have a plan before you start the work. It is therefore important to
have a way to fitter any of those changes.

Inflated scope
When working on a project we have a set idea of what the requirements are going to
be and so if we then add on requirements without swapping some requirements out we
going to have inflated scope and this will result in other things like constantly shifting
priorities. This will cause lots work for the team and their attention will be
everywhere on those scope which need no priority. It would hard for them to focus on
what is actually going to be the most valuable thing for their customers if they are
constantly having this shifting priorities. Having inflated scope creep is inevitably
going to result I shifting priorities.

Increase in the project timeline

Increase in project scope will mean that there will be more work to be done which
may require additional timeline for completion. The team already had a plan they are
working towards and schedule they are working on, and then they have to
accommodate for this additional requirements which means additional work for them
to do.

Decrease in the quality of the project

If the resources assigned to the project are not increase the quality of the product may
be low as result of the addition scope into the planned scope.
Potential increase in the project budget
Adding scope creep increases the amount of work to be done which in turn increases
cost or forces other scope to be deprioritized