Thursday, December 9, 2010
Scope Creep
A prior project involving Scope Creep included the Project Manager (PM) retiring. The PM is the essential part of project, and they often have vital information that isn't privy to anyone else. There should always be a backup and everyone should be on the same page as far as information and technical issues or concerned. Information such as missing and archived reports was an issue along with programming skill set and training. There wasn't any documentation or additional members on the team with similar knowledge or from similar backgrounds. Needless to say, this project came to a halt, and had to be reevaluated by Management because years of working knowledge were no longer available, causing major delays. There wasn’t a backup plan, and after much deliberation management decided to go with software altogether which didn’t require any coding and was user friendly.
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Hi Keren,
ReplyDeleteI can see how the retirement of a PM would be a major hurdle to overcome. The PM sets so much of the tone of a project that even if a highly competent one is hired to replace them, the project will probably never get back on track with the same focus as it was. The individual personality and strengths of the PM are what make the team work well together and the routine established by them is important. However, retirement is seldom "sudden" and if the organization was aware of it, it should have taken steps to minimize the impact through a risk assessment.