Analyzing Scope Creep

I had a hard time thinking of a professional project that caused scope creep. I decided to ask my co-worker, Aaron, who is the Director of my Communication Department if any project that he and I worked on caused scope creep. One of Aaron’s many responsibilities is the design and maintenance of the Web site. When I asked if him if he can recall a project that we together, he jokingly said - “yes, can you remember that microsite that worked on together? That project got pretty creepy”. Always the word smith, Aaron recalled the time that his Communication’s team and my Education Department wanted to create a microsite for an upcoming live conference http://clinicalcongress.gastro.org/.

Clum (2014) describes that “microsites are separate from a company's full website and are dedicated to serving one purpose - thus eliminating the clutter and distractions that come with a full website” (para 1). A microsite is basically a pretty Web page and is simple in both design and content. When my Education team met with our Communication Department, we explained that we just needed a simple microsite that would link out to content to our Organizations main Web site.

The confusion came about when my Education Team met with the Communication Department without me. I was out on vacation and my Education Team started to use technical terms interchangeably. For example, they would tell the Communications’ Team to create a web page inside the microsite. Note that the existing content that was already on our main server. If I was present, I would have told our Communications team to just link out to existing content (on our main web site).

So, the scope was being expanded by my Education Team. They were requesting redundant work from our Communications Department. I came back from vacation and the atmosphere was sour and nobody understood what went wrong. The Communication’s Department was irritated because of the extra work. My Communications team were asking themselves: “Why are we creating a whole new web site?” The Education Department was irritated and they thought “why can’t the Communication’s Department do their job and create some links?”

I was able to work with the Communications Department and simplify the microsite so that the links would just link out. Also, all of the major content would exist on the body of main microsite page. Further, my Education Department would have access to the main page and they could create the content.

I was scratching my head and wondering how can a simple Web page (forget web site) get so out of hand – so quick? I have to think that there some people in my Organization wanted to make things more complicated than they needed to. Lynch (2007) mentions that one of the reasons for scope creep is that a “project team may drift away from their original duties, which may be viewed as boring since the team may be in the more mundane development of the project” (p. 96).

Looking back at the project, I would like to think that after taking this course that I would have a better handle on future projects. Portny et al, (2008) mention that the major source of scope creep is when a project manager tries to avoid bureaucracy and takes on more responsibility (p. 346). Since, I was away from the project and I was on vacation, I don’t know if this course would have helped. However, the course and our subject matter (i.e. scope creep) are helpful for me in my role in my Organization because it allows me to understand the project management process and terminology.

References:

Clum, L. (2014, March 19). 5 brilliant microsites and why they're so effective. Retrieved from http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/5-brilliant-microsites-8135477

Lynch, M. M., & Roecker, J. (2007). Project managing e-learning: A handbook for successful design, delivery, and management. London: Routledge. Copyright by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Reprinted by permission of Taylor & Francis Group, LLC via the Copyright

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Estimating Costs and Allocating Resources

My search came up with two blogs that I found useful in estimating the cost, effort, and / or activity durations associated with ID projects. 

Christy Tucker has her blog that specializes in Instructional Design, technology and K-12 Education.  Her URL is: https://christytucker.wordpress.com/.  She is a freelancer that specializes in online Instructional Design.  Notable resources / features of her WordPress blogging site: there is a search field, comment field, related articles and tags.  Those features allowed me to dig deep into her blog.  Using the search feature and typing the word “estimates”, I came up with 2 helpful posts: Time Estimates for E-Learning Development and Time Tracking Template for Instructional Design. I liked how she places keyword tags under the title of her blog.  I was able to follow the “timeestimate” tag and found additional resources.  I noticed that her blog references some of the key players in the online ID industry such as Karl Kapp work with ASTD and Cathy Moore blog regarding training.  Her blog allowed for comments and I was able to gain some practical information by reading some of the responses.

The other site that I found useful is Don Clark’s blog called Big Dog, Little Dog. He is an ID consultant based out of Edmonds, Washington. Specifically, his page dedicated to projecting training costs: http://nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/costs.html . Useful features is that it is helpful in determining the budgeting, training cost, estimating hours and tools (an excel spreadsheet) to assist in figuring out the project cost.  The design of the blog is slightly dated but I found his sitemap useful. I used the search feature on his site and used the search term "costs" and "estimates" & came up with more resources.

I hope that the 2 blogs are helpful to my classmates in their week 5 project!