Dealing with Scope Creep – How to Keep Projects on Track and Within Budget

When it comes to new technology initiatives like a Salesforce implementation, some level of scope creep is inevitable, but it doesn’t have to mean your project will go off the deep end. In this article we explore some of the common reasons why scope creep happens, and share tips on how to keep a project on track and within budget.

What is Scope Creep, and Why is it so Common?

At its most basic, scope creep is the addition of new features, requirements, or changes that were not approved in the initial project scope.

Scope creep is common for most technology implementation projects, especially for those organizations that are new to Salesforce. Moving CRM’s is a complex process, and your team may not fully understand their organizational needs, or things might get missed in the discovery phase of the project.

Another common reason for scope creep on implementation projects is that the team might not initially have a full understanding of all that Salesforce can do. As their knowledge grows, so too does the likelihood that new features or functionality will be requested.

The risks of poorly managed scope creep is an overbuilt system at a higher cost that does not meet your expected requirement or project timeline. This creates increased technical debt, making the overall system more difficult to manage and evolve.

While scope creep is a challenge, the important thing to remember
is that strong project management skills and clearly defined requirements will help you keep projects on track and within budget.

When working with us here at North Peak, clients have two main opportunities to weigh in on the project scope. The first opportunity is an initial pre-scoping process that will uncover the known requirements and goals, and result in an official contract.

The second opportunity to discuss the project scope is in the Discovery phase of the project. This phase is a deep-dive into the organization’s work to ensure the proposed solution is aligned with your goals, values, processes, tactics, and capacity to maintain and evolve the system. We also revisit the project scope with our clients after Discovery to account for the team’s full requirements and priorities, and to ensure we have all the information needed to build out the new system.

How to Keep Projects on Track and Within Budget (Even if There is Scope Creep)

As a Project Manager, it’s your job to know the project’s budget and timeline, and to work with your team to ensure all proposed scope changes are thought out and tied back to your organization’s strategic goals. If scope changes are necessary, they should always be addressed with a Change Order (CO) or roadmapped and planned for phase two of the project.

When it comes to COs it’s important to keep in mind how they will affect the project as a whole. Your consultant is busy and has other clients, so while a CO may be necessary, it will also increase the overall budget and most likely move the launch date out to account for the additional work, and the consultants’ capacity to get it done.

Project Managers are key to keeping projects on track, and as such you should be fully invested in the moments when the project team is sharing feedback. This is especially important during the prototype phase of the project. This is the first time the team is seeing the solution in action, and questions will come up about functionality, features, and user experience, all of which could change the scope of work.

Clear and timely communication is one of the keys to success in the project manager role!

As consultants we want to know about new things that surface, problems that arise, or changes that the team is proposing. We are your partner, and as such can help you strategize around things like user requests for additional functionality or changes to the system. But, we can’t help you effectively if you don’t communicate.

A strong Project Manager will refer back to the needs analysis and user stories, doublechecking to see if proposed changes are in scope, determining their priority level, and outlining the benefits of the proposed changes.

Unless the proposed change is absolutely necessary, we often recommend that clients move forward with launch. This allows them to use the system, and will help determine if the proposed enhancement is actually necessary in practice. If so, then those enhancements can be addressed, likely in a phase two of the project after folks have time to interact with and learn the new system.

Final Thoughts on Dealing with Scope Creep

The flexibility of Salesforce is one of the factors that makes it such a powerful tool, however it requires management to prevent overbuilding the system and creating unnecessary technical debt.

We advise our clients to have clear goals, initially starting small and focusing on user adoption and data quality. The ideal outcome is a highly functional system that meets the most important user needs. New user requests will of course happen, and in the best case scenario it’s a result of a growing understanding of the system as you see your processes and data in a whole new way.

With intentionality, solutions can be provided, and ideas for future changes added to a roadmap for implementation down the line, when the time is right.

Contact us to learn more about implementing or evolving Salesforce for your organization.