TOPIC: Scope Creep vs Progressive elaboration

Hi,

I find hard to answer situational questions on Scope Creep, vs Progressive elaboration.
If the Scope Statement is signed off with some open items, and customer says we'll 'clarify' some requirements later after talking to users, but you please proceed with the project since 95% scope is well known and documented.
So we go ahead and baseline this ??
And later during execution when these 'Clarifications' and new work comes in, is it treated as addition in scope and a CR is raised? (which means, budget/etc will be impacted?).
Will this be called Scope creep ? What if customer says - We already told you we will "progressively elaborate'.

My take is - we should document the "unknown" scope in Risk register and have a contingency reserve, so that we can analyze whatever comes in later and use the reserve money. This wont be called as Scope Creep right?

Please reply. (my exam is in day after tomorrow)!
thanks.
Krupa.

Krupa,

I see the difference between these two as Scope Creep being uncontrolled and Progressive Elaboration as controlled. I think it would be fine to baseline it based on 95% of the scope depending on the nature of the project and its objectives. Of course, you can never know all of the possible details at the start, and that is why having a good change control process is so critical in order to avoid scope creep. If you are doing progressive elaboration properly and communicating effectively, then it should be clear to all stakeholders if the additional detailing are still within the original scope or if they are expanding the scope to the point of requiring a change request so that things don't get out of control.

If the customer is not totally clear of the product or project specifications, then maybe it is necessary to do prototyping or storyboarding in order to get more early feedback on the requirements. Or, maybe you would need to take more of an Agile approach to the project and develop incrementally, get user feedback, update requirements etc..

Note that "known" risks are assigned a contingency reserve and "unknown" risks are assigned a management reserve.

Hope this helps. Best of luck to you on your exam. Stay confident!

Cheers,

Mark

I See, thanks Mark. Noted.

Oh yes ! We use Management reserve for unknown risks ! Thanks for reminding that.