How to Avoid & Mitigate Scope Creep: Key Causes & Fixes

Two words guaranteed to scare a project manager this Halloween: scope creep.

The reality of scope creep is even more dramatic as it’s persistent all year round, haunting and draining the resources of digital agencies, software development companies, and so many others in the professional services industry.

All too often, scope creep comes from good intentions – making the client happy. But it’s always detrimental to the morale of the employees and the business’ bottom line. Especially seeing how it’s preventable in most cases with good processes and good data.

This here is a deep dive into scope creep. Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about diagnosing, treating, preventing, and eliminating scope creep completely.

Let’s dive in.

What is scope creep?

Scope creep is uncontrolled growth of a project’s scope. It’s always a step above the original requirements and deliverables, causing the project to expand beyond the predetermined timeframe and resources allocated to it.

Not every deviation from the original plan is considered scope creep. Rather, it’s continuous and uncontrolled expansion of a project, unmistakable to seasoned PMs. As the requirements change, the project deadline keeps shifting to a later date, causing delays and overall uncertainty about project delivery.

Scope creep can be subtle and incremental or sudden and large-scale. In the former case, it’s especially nefarious as even experienced teams can overlook it, especially when driven by the noble intention of doing a good job and making the client happy.

The more ambiguous project goals are at the beginning, the higher the chances of scope creep. Without proper tracking and reliable data, it can be hard to spot. Small teams and freelancers are especially susceptible to scope creep as they often lack the resources and tools to properly track their project deliverables or don’t push for enough clarity in the scope to begin with.

We’ll dive into the causes of scope creep a bit later in the guide. First, let’s look at some examples of scope creep in the professional services industry.

Scope creep examples

Because of the wide variety of professional services, scope creep can manifest itself in different ways. However, it always results in overutilization of resources, which can lead to overservicing and burnout. Consider the following scenarios.

Extra features

Imagine a web agency that designs websites for clients. A client purchases a service package that includes a brand new website design and development. All website features are agreed upon before project launch.

In the course of the project, however, the client requests additional features like a site-wide search bar and a variety of pop-ups. These features were not accounted for when allocating the resources of the team. The delivery of the project ends up getting delayed by 2 months.

In and of itself, requesting extra features is not bad. Clients can realize they missed some things at the concept and planning stage and procure additional services on top of what was originally agreed upon.

Scope creep arises when extra work is uncompensated and clients are simply undercharged and overserviced. Or the deadline keeps shifting into the future and the service provider ends up being penalized for that.

Design changes

Any designer working with multiple clients knows the pain of “quick changes” and revisions. All too often, clients lack the design expertise but not the persistence in requesting that the work is redone multiple times.

While adding new features is clearly stepping outside of the original project scope, revisions are trickier because they concern the agreed upon deliverables. However, the endless remaking and renegotiating can push a project into scope creep with the amount of deliverables remaining the same.

So even though no new features were added on top of the initial project scope, the service provider invested an additional 10 hours in revisions and design changes. Even though the project was delivered on time, the extra 10 hours of designer work were never compensated for.

Again, design changes by themselves are perfectly harmless. It’s the fact that resources get overutilized, i.e., the designer’s time and project budget, that leads to scope creep.

Force majeure

Onto more manual professional services like construction or maintenance, scope creep can occur whenever there are delays in supply. Quite simply, if materials or equipment can not make it to the site on time, the work keeps getting delayed.

Add to that adverse weather conditions unforeseen because the work was supposed to be done at an earlier date – and you have extra work piling up because of, e.g., water damage. As a result, the service provider completes the work 2 weeks later and the budget is exceeded by 20% (even though it’s not the client’s fault for once).

Any on-site project involving multiple stakeholders is prone to scope creep. In fact, few such projects are completed on time and budget. In certain professional services such as construction scope creep is a given and it’s the job of the service provider to account for these unforeseen changes and ensure that the damage is minimal.

Scope creep vs scope change

Scope change is inevitable, scope creep is preventable. Change is an intrinsic part of project management, whether it comes from the client or internally. Depending on how that change is handled, it can result in scope creep. Below is a simple side-by-side comparison.

As you can see, the key difference between scope change and scope creep lies in the extent of control over it. Projects are bound to change scope, especially if they’re large-scale and take a long time to complete.

In order to properly assess the impact of any given change and evaluate it in terms of project cost and schedule, there needs to be a clear process backed by real-time, reliable project data.

When there’s none or limited visibility into project progress, i.e., it’s unclear when milestones are being met and whether all resources are utilized to the full extent, change is dangerous. There’s no way to calculate the impact if you act on gut feeling rather than data.

Let’s focus more on the causes of scope creep.

What causes scope creep

As we’ve determined before, neither change requests nor new feature requests are guaranteed to cause scope creep. Below are key contributing factors that will lead to project scope creep more often than not.

1. Unclear project scope

The easiest way to end up with scope creep is to be vague about the project scope in the first place. This is typical of inexperienced freelancers and teams that work with clients who don’t have project management experience and need to be guided and even pushed to provide clear project requirements. Otherwise they’re stuck in the mentality of wanting everything and nothing in particular.

The less experience the service provider has, the more likely they are to accept new requests on the spot for fear of disappointing and losing the client. With unclear scope come unclear deliverables and as a rule the project drags on much longer than expected.

2. Too many stakeholders

Multiple stakeholders is not inherently bad; however, the number of stakeholders has to be justified by project scope. In order to protect the interests of all stakeholders, there needs to be transparency and mediation. A project manager’s resources can get exhausted simply by negotiating with too many stakeholders at once.

The more stakeholders there are on a project, the more complex the process of evaluating change and agreeing on the impact becomes. Provided the change has not been approved by at least one stakeholder, scope change can become scope creep.

Not to mention the fact that many stakeholders on the client’s side means more room for suggestions and requests that the service provider needs to process. Sometimes, these requests can contradict one another coming from different stakeholders on the side of the client. It’s the PM’s job to make sure all stakeholders are aware of the actions of the other stakeholders as they’re not guaranteed to act as a unified front at all times.

3. No data or bad data

In-between project launch and delivery there exists infinite space for optimization… or failure. A recipe for disaster is shaking on a project, ceasing all communication, and then reconvening on the estimated completion date to see the results.

If you’re lucky to see the project delivered on time, where’s the guarantee that no resources were wasted? If the project is delayed – as is often the case when there’s poor visibility into the project progress – there’s hope that the painful lesson might be learned this time around.

Real-time data on project progress is not necessarily something that the client needs, although they could always request it, especially if there are delays on change requests that get denied. Internally, however, knowing how the project is progressing against other projects in progress is essential to maintain profitability.

To assess how a project is progressing, PMs use milestones and break the work down into smaller tasks and sub-tasks. Teams then report on the completion of these tasks and bottlenecks and blockers, if any.

4. Bad estimation

A problem born out of bad data + unclear project scope is bad estimates. When you’re unsure what is required, it’s hard to make a precise estimate as to how long the project will take. But even with a clearly defined scope, some projects are notoriously difficult to estimate (think software development) and often result in scope creep.

Most often, however, bad estimates arise from the lack of data on past projects. When a service provider doesn’t keep a clear record of the time it takes to complete projects and works with multiple clients at once, it can be hard to estimate incoming projects correctly.

The result can be either underestimated or overestimated projects. When projects are underestimated, the service provider is forced to either put in extra work at their own expense to complete the project on time or delay the project and go into scope creep.

Estimation is a delicate art but it can be made into a precise science with good time management and accurate data at your fingertips.

How to prevent scope creep

Now that we’ve addressed the causes of scope creep and identified the risks you need to anticipate, let’s lay down the rules for preventing it. Follow the steps below to protect your team from scope creep and the toll it can take on your wellbeing and reputation.

Be clear about project scope

If there’s one thing that’s blatantly obvious at this point in this article, it’s that you have to be strategic and vigilant when it comes to agreeing on the project scope.

When it comes to inevitable scope change and new feature requests, you’ll thank your past self for being so persistent about outlining the exact scope of the project. Any new suggestion can be met with the precise list of requirements you agreed upon and the milestones you projected. All things on top of that will have to be budgeted for, both in terms of your compensation and the project timeline.

It’s a good idea to clearly define your service package especially if you work on a flat rate and can’t charge for the extra hours put in because of new requests that arose in the course of the project. Consider your pricing strategy and develop a template for defining project scope in as much detail as possible to protect yourself from scope creep.

Suggest a change request policy

Even with the most well-defined project scope, clients can still be tempted to suggest changes inspired by preliminary results. Invest time in developing a clear policy for assessing changes and calculating the impact it will have on the project timeline and budget.

Take into account all the stakeholders in your project as well as all deliverables. Ensure the client that all change will be met with healthy skepticism to their own benefit.

Agree on the points at which change suggestions are welcome. If you receive change requests pretty much every day you may find yourself stuck with assessments while losing track of the actual project progress. This is an excellent opportunity to define your boundaries and demonstrate experience.

Get visibility into progress & resources

Whatever methodology you use – Kanban, Agile, or something else entirely – make sure you can hold your team accountable for their utilization. This is accomplished by having accurate data on how time is being allocated and whether or not project milestones can be met on time.

Nobody wants a team that is overworked and burnt out. Neither do you want a team that is underutilized when you could be selling more services and earning more money, including more earning potential for the team. You have to get your people on board with the idea of reporting on their own time usage fairly and consistently.

Memtime is a desktop app for Windows, macOS, and Linux that tracks time for you. It simply follows your mouse and keyboard to keep a record of everything you do on your computer. This information is stored offline and is only visible to you.

No matter how many tabs you have open, Memtime will precisely record your time in each of them. By looking at your activity log, you can quickly remember what you worked on and log hours on projects with precision.

By connecting your project software, you’re able to export time entries automatically. This is the easiest and most reliable way to track time on a project as it requires 0 effort from the team and protects their privacy. Accurate time data helps you monitor progress, assess change requests, manage utilization, and estimate future projects.

If your team is ready for a data revolution that eliminates scope creep, book a call with us and let’s start your team trial.

Stopping scope creep for good

Scope creep is harmful but when you know that it’s incompatible with clear processes and good data, it’s not so nefarious after all. It’s well within your power as a PM to protect your team from scope creep and resolve your utilization and profitability issues in one go.

Don’t let the threat of scope creep discourage you from change and innovation. Welcome change but lay down clear procedures and ensure you have accurate data. Then you can always own your projects and deliver on time and on budget.