Scope Creep is like going into the supermarket for one ingredient but leaving with a cart full of items, or without the item at all.
Less than one year ago I became the director of allied health education for a start- up private post- secondary career school. While on probation the campus president added two more job titles with significantly separate responsibilities to my existing position. One of the positions, academic effectiveness coordinator required the development of a student retention plan. The president identified the dean of students and the academic effectiveness coordinator to complete this project with final approval by him. Following our kick off meeting, WBS, and proof of concept documents, the president decided to allow the attendance coordinator to join (as per her request) to “help us revise” these documents. More specifically the early intervention form became her focus. Suddenly the project was veering away from overall retention and steering toward the attendance coordinator superseding the dean of students. This young lady thought the font should be in (comic sans ms); similar to what you would expect to find in an early child development activity. In addition to this, she wanted for everyone to be responsible for what was clearly her job and insisted on requiring each department to sign off that they had in fact done her work. Everyone was so taken back at the clearly determined missteps. The dean, the registrar (someone whose opinion the president respected) and I had to have a side bar meeting with the president and once it was clear he had given the attendance coordinator carte blanch serious consideration whether to continue or withdraw was weighed by everyone. The dean of students (PM) was very determined to create a retention plan that would actually cause students to want to remain in school until completion and not simply prevent the attendance coordinator from doing her job. The dean requested the form be drafted in such a way that the attendance coordinator had to follow up with each student and then bring her decisions in front of the retention board. After these minor changes the attendance coordinator met with the campus president and the retention plan, quite brilliant I may add was never realized or approved. I was required to revise it three times following the termination of the dean. Sometimes, you can have every process covered and plan to manage a successful project but if the entire team is not in support of it or if there are hidden stakeholders, motives or personal relationships within the team dynamic it can be difficult for any PM to keep control. The team was able to produce a very realistic retention plan. Behind the scenes the attendance coordinator and campus president had a professional and private relationship that threatened the ability of the team and quality of the process. Looking back I could have met with the president and asked him informally how each position at the time was expected to depend on this plan. I could have asked every member for their feedback early on and reached a consensus and avoided the stepping on toes which ensued. Stolovitch advises project managers that 90% of a projects communication is what is not said. Furthermore, if we had a more structured communication and change of scope request plan our dean of students would have been able to avoid scope creep without it becoming so personal.
Reference:
Stolovitch, H., (2011) “Project Management and instructional Design”. Walden University. [Video]. Baltimore, Maryland: Laureate Education, Inc. Available: EDUC-6145-4 Project Management in Education and Training.
Dynamics & Agendas
ReplyDeleteHi, Ama.
“Each project is like a snowflake. From afar it looks like all the other snowflakes. Up close, it is unique" (Pitagorsky, G., 2007, p. 250). People (human resources/assets) are the most complex and critical aspect of project management, and communications is the key to managing them. It sounds like your project team had some serious dynamics and communications issues.
Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, and Kramer (2008) indicate that of among “most significant challenges of project management” is team members who have not worked together before or don’t know each other (p. 17). Essentially, the project manager must help the unfamiliar parties learn each other’s “operating and communicating styles” and to “quickly form flexible, open, and trust-based working relationships” (Portny, et al., 2008, p. 18). Given the issues your team experienced, I wonder if your project manager made any effort to develop this foundational base for working relationships and communications. Pitagorsky (2007) opines “[t]rust is a critical determinant of team cohesion and health…and a foundation for relationship” and Portny, et al. (2008) state project managers must use their influence on team members to build the team (p. 206; pp. 255-256). If a project manager does not help set the tone for the team’s performance and healthy communication (e.g., does not encourage a sense of “team”), the project will suffer as yours did.
Cheers,
Kiersten
References
Pitagorsky, G. (2007). The Zen approach to project management: Working from your center to balance expectations and performance. International Institute for Learning, Inc.: New York, NY.
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.
Hi Ama,
ReplyDelete“Generally, a hidden agenda is a secret plan (or thought) serving an individual (or a group of individuals) own interests, regardless of the (usually negative) outcome that might affect others” (Project Management Learning, 2010, para. 1). Your statement about hidden stakeholders really got me thinking about all the projects I have worked on where I am sure there is a hidden agenda or stakeholder. This has to be one of the most difficult risks to plan for because as the word suggests, it is hidden so we may not know about it until the project is underway.
You mentioned that “you could have met with the President and asked him informally how each position at the time was expected to depend on this plan.” Do you think the President would have told you about the attendance coordinator’s role in the process? The Project Management Learning (2010) article stated it is very hard for a project manager to address a hidden agenda because it usually comes from a key stakeholder and could carry serious career repercussions (para. 11). The article went on to state that the “worst thing a project manager could do is “join the dance”, e.g. adopting a stakeholder’s hidden agenda himself” (para. 11). From your post I can tell that you did not agree with the hidden stakeholder’s agenda, but did you ever find yourself wondering if you should just go along with their thoughts? Did any of the other team members feel like they should just adapt the project to meet the hidden stakeholder’s wants? If so, how were you able to talk them out of it?
Reference
Project Management Learning, (2010). What is a hidden agenda in project management. Retrieved from http://www.projectmanagementlearning.com/what-is-a-hidden-agenda-in-project-management.html.
Hi Jenn,
ReplyDeleteI do expect the president would have shared this information with me, but I could have documented our conversation with suggestions and plans to follow up so that injecting this surprise could have also been documented or at the very least cause for him to reconsider. To answer your question the PM did not adopt or go along with this new agenda, instead she further insulated the retention plan (project) by holding this hidden stakeholder with the hidden agenda even more accountable and her goals transparent by requiring her to be responsible for this documentation and to make public her handling of her responsibilities visible to the entire team as much as everyone else. This killed the projects implementation. I later learned how difficult it would be to work with this young lady following the PM’s abrupt departure, but I took note on how the PM continued to work with the entire team to complete this plan and then simply let it roll off her agenda and into the presidents list of things to eventually approve or deny forever. After ten months and two revisions we were no closer to an implementation approval or denial.
This week I reflected on the importance of a clearly written and mutually agreed upon project scope statement. Equally as important would be to have within this statement identified those things which are outside the scope of the project. This could have had a major impact on the quality of process, and overall outcome. However, with the overall expectation of the driver being to reduce the work of one employee and recreate the organizational structure of the campus, following these steps could have killed the project before “kick off” and eliminated the accumulation of instances for future grievance on each party offended by such incivility.
Thamk you for the link!