# Scope creep Scope creep is the continuous, uncontrolled growth of a project's scope after it has started. It's also called requirement creep, or feature creep in software. Each addition looks small on its own, which is how it gets in; the sum is what overruns the schedule, the budget, or both. Common causes: a scope that was never clearly defined or written down, stakeholders who weren't consulted at the start, changes that look cheap to make, and additions from the team itself, made with the intent of improving the result. On a personal project, that last source is you. Some scope change is normal and can make the result better. The problem is change nobody explicitly decided on. The usual countermeasures: - Write down what's in scope and what's out of scope (non-goals) before starting, for example in a [[Project charter]] - Agree on [[Success criteria]] up front, so every new request can be checked against them - Treat each new item as a trade-off on the [[Iron Triangle]]: if it comes in, something else (time, money or another feature) has to give - Fix the time box and hammer the scope to fit it, as [[Shape Up]] does with [[Scope hammering]] ## References - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scope_creep - https://concepts.dsebastien.net/concept/scope-creep/ - https://www.dsebastien.net/on-the-importance-of-non-goals/ - https://basecamp.com/shapeup/3.5-chapter-14 ## Related - [[Iron Triangle]] - [[Scope hammering]] - [[Success criteria]] - [[Project charter]] - [[On the importance of non-goals (Article)]] - [[Knowledge Worker Kit - 01.06 Non-goals]] - [[Large projects act as magnets attracting additional cost, scope, and risk]] - [[You Aren't Gonna Need It (YAGNI)]] - [[Minimum Viable Product (MVP)]] - [[Project Management (MoC)]]