The question is regarding scope creep. So, before going to know how to manage scope creep, it’s important to know what scope creep is and why it is a problem.
Scope is boundary of any change or solution or functionality i.e. requirements that are agreed to be the part of a project that in its boundaries are considered to be in scope of the project. Many other requirements may also be in the project but they are considered to be out of the project.
So if the requirements boundary suddenly changes, then it is called a scope creep and it happens when the business stakeholder determines that the current project cannot be proceeded without new functionalities and there comes the problem as the projects are planned and this scope creep affects the whole project.
To handle the scope creep you need to follow some technique. They are:
- Explaining the consequences: Explain the consequences about the budget and the complexities that would happen due to additional features. If the business stakeholder still wants that then, you can go for other techniques or if the project doesn’t make sense without the change, then should implement that change.
- Reschedule the scope: You can just reschedule the additional requirements to the later phase of the project. By this technique a fresh new budgeting and resource allocation and additional time has to spent and those needs to be made clear before going to implement this technique.
- Replacing in the project: you can just take something out of the project and replace them with the additional requirements with minimum affects to the project or can move the previous functionalities to the next phase.
- Escalate the issue: If you are not able to convince the stakeholder and you cannot take the decision, it’s time to escalate the issue to someone of higher authority.