Project Scope Creep Case Study: No Way Out
Posted: Tuesday, October 16, 2007
by Claudio LoCicero
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.
This Article has been viewed 813 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.