Scope Creep and Gold Plating in Software Projects
The two most common challenges in software project analysis and management are the pitfalls of scope creeping and gold plating. In this article, we will briefly discuss what these are and how you can deal with them.
Scope Creeping
Scope creeping or requirements creeping refers to small, creeping, uncontrolled growth in project scope. If you have not defined and documented the project or product scope well enough, or are not managing the scope or changes effectively, it is inevitable that you will experience scope creeping.
The reason many inexperienced business analysts or project managers fall into the scope creeping trap is that scope creeping comes so insidiously. Often, a stakeholder who has a major impact on the project comes in with a very innocuous request through a sympathetic channel. Then a little something is added to that request. When they see that they have this small request, they make other small requests. Other parties begin to make small requests that also seem very innocuous. It is quite normal for these requests to start small and then grow. But it is not possible to accept one request and reject the rest. Then you suddenly find yourself in the scope creeping trap. If you end up both making the development team unhappy and unable to get additional budget and time for all these changes, you jeopardize the success of the project.
What you can do to avoid project scope creeping may sound a bit strict, but it’s clearly about following these rules:
· Define the project and product scope clearly. Put it in writing and formalize it by getting it approved by relevant stakeholders.
· Determine at the beginning of the project how you will manage the scope and changes. Communicate this to stakeholders and obtain their approval.
· Do not directly accept any request, even a very small one, without scope and change management.
· Make sure you document and share changes required for the scope management process with relevant stakeholders.
Gold Plating
Gold plating also means adding functionality or features that are not in the scope of the project or in the product description, such as scope creep. However, in gold plating, the idea for these additional functions or features comes from the development team, business analyst, or project manager. In other words, the solution team adds a feature that the stakeholder clearly does not want and believes adds value to the product.
Although this action may seem well-intentioned and essentially positive, it is considered a negative approach in project management because it adds cost to the project and may introduce unforeseen risks. In addition, gold plating may also cause the delivery date to be delayed. In addition, stakeholders may not accept software with features they do not want.
Gold plating essentially arises from the following motivations of project team members who are well-intentioned and want to stand out:
- Believes that the newly added feature will greatly facilitate the work of users
- Believes that the new function to be added will add value to the business unit
- Wants to prove himself
- Has free time, wants to do something
- Wants to draw stakeholder attention to something other than existing bugs
The most basic way to avoid gold plating is good project follow-up. Make sure that the work done on the project and the features added to the product are included in the product scope. If you really want to add a feature that will add value or make the customer’s job easier, bring it up in an appropriate work. Have all aspects of your proposed feature been discussed? Then get approval from relevant stakeholders. This way, you add value to the project/product as well as to yourself.
