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Rarely does a project end where it was envisioned to at the
beginning due to scope creep. Scope
creep is usually caused by a redefinition of a client's requirements which may
or may not affect budget and timelines.
How changes are managed and controlled is quite important in maintaining
focus, momentum, and the bottom line…but there are times when a project team
has no way out. In one particular
project for a Middle Eastern country's air force which was subcontracted to my
company by a well known international consultancy is an exceptional scope creep
case. The initial 18 month project
called for setting up three separate network infrastructures in 65 buildings on
one air base, interconnecting the buildings to the main and backup datacenters
along with all the associated civil work and fiber laying, then interconnecting
the datacenters to their headquarters which was located over 140 kilometers
away.
No sooner than the project started that the consultancy received
an unofficial request to add another building to the project. Since this project was actually funded by the U.S.
Government, the paperwork to have even a decimal point changed on the contract
would be so difficult that obtaining Congressional Approval for a Supreme Court
nominee would be an easier task.
Understanding the difficulty of having contracts changed and wanting to
maintain good will with the client, the consultancy agreed to add the building
which then started a chain reaction of requests. Sixty-six buildings soon grew to 78 and the
consultancy had to eventually put its foot down and explain to the client that
they could not give up any more of their profit and if they needed to include more
buildings then additional funds would have to be requisitioned and another
contract obtained. The consultancy had
also already eaten through the slush fund that the U.S. Government had set up
knowing that the client would ask for additional services.
My company maintained that our contract specified 65 buildings
which were surveyed and proposals submitted on. The additional buildings were
eventually included for an additional cost which the consultancy negotiated
with my company's senior management.
Unfortunately, in this case, even with all the arguments for
better change management, there was no way out for the consultancy and it had
to give up as much as it could because it was performing a calculated
risk. The project was supposed to be the
first of six identical projects at various air bases around this Middle Eastern
country, and the consultancy wanted to receive a good recommendation so that it
could successfully bid on those additional projects. The consultancy was willing to cut profit on
this project so that it could make an overall financial windfall on the next
five which was to be issued as one mega-project. The commander of this first air base knew
about the additional contract and kept the carrot of his recommendation
dangling in front of the consultancy after each request for an additional building.
Although not usually a favorable project activity, this case
does illustrate that sometimes scope creep can be a necessary evil if by
accepting short term losses a business, in return, expects long term gains.
Written by Claudio LoCicero, M.S.
Over his career he has held several technical and management
positions both in the United
States and overseas within the private and
government sectors.Claudio LoCicero
holds a Master of Science in Information Technology with an Information
Security Specialization.He also holds
numerous professional certifications such as the PMP, CISM, CISSP, ITILF, along
with several certifications from Cisco, Microsoft, and the NSA.
Disclaimer: All information on this site is provided for informational purposes only! By no means is any
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