EDUC-6145: Week 6 Post

 Analyzing Scope Creep

 

            As a teacher, I am also the head coach for our extracurricular dance team. Being the Director of a program involves many projects with potential for scope creep. A big hurdle we take on every year is competing. Competition happens in February of every year, but preparations begin in June. For competition, we need specialty music mixed, choreography taught, technique sessions to get our dancers to improve as much as possible, and other administrative work like fundraising, purchasing requests, and field trip paperwork as well. Because this task begins eight months before, it is crucial that I maintain the scope of the project so that by the time we arrive to competition, every moving piece is not only completed but completed with a level of mastery that will put my dancers at an advantage over our competitors. 

            As much as I’d love to say we always start in June, we always have our choreography taught early, and our technique sessions weekly- we don’t. Things come up, life happens, and for the last 2 years we’ve been working under the uncertainty of a pandemic. We don’t get started as early as I would like, or we start on time but end up having to pause our efforts for another school function like football season and halftime performances (which are totally different than our competition dances). In these scenarios, I am the project manager, and sometimes the instructional designer, and the stakeholder. But I would also consider my students stakeholders as well… this is their passion, and they are just as eager to improve and do well at competition as I am. When things get tight and deadlines approach, my students are ready and willing to go the extra mile to make sure we get back on track. On our worst year, I would have to cut out a dance or two, or maybe spend less time doing the “fun” stuff so that we could focus more on catching up. 

            Having now done this for 10 years, I am getting better at replicating the success and it helps that its generally the same scenario every year, so the level of pre-determination is high and therefore easy to replicate what I did on years when things went well. The biggest indicator right away if it’s going to be a smooth year is if we can start in June or not. If we can start in the summertime, we are already ahead of the game by the time school starts and therefore more likely to remain on schedule and be prepared for competition. 

            I found a great article authored by MBO Partners (2022) that gives tips for avoiding scope creep and I would absolutely incorporate some of them in the future:

1. Start your project with a contract- discussing deliverables, timelines, and duties for the PM (me) and the client (my students).
2. Create a backup plan- so if you need to use it, everyone involved already knows what it is.
3.  Host a kick-off meeting
4. Communicate clearly and often
5. Know when to say “no”- sometimes less is more!

 

Reference

6 tips to prevent scope creep. MBO Partners. (2022, January 16). Retrieved February 21, 2022, from https://www.mbopartners.com/blog/how-grow-small-business/6-tips-to-prevent-scope-creep/