Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Analyzing Scope Creep
To begin, I have not personally been a part of a project that experienced issues related to scope creep. I have however held a position that continuously experienced scope creep. I found that this has been coined “mission creep”. “One of the most common forms of mission creep, however, is not a project at all. It's your overall job” (Wade, 2008, pg 1). That position is the position I hold currently. When I began my job 4 years ago, I started as a Title 1 Tutor. What this involved was pulling students from their classrooms for extra help with reading skills. The students could be pulled individually or in small groups from kindergarten and first grade.
As the years progressed more responsibilities were given to the Title 1 Tutors in response to our work ethic and abilities. Many of us were asked to do more testing, help with classes, run committees (such as Right to Read Week and Dr Seuss Week), and sometimes even teach small group classes (9 students). As we got better at our job, more responsibilities were added, but the perception that we “did nothing” still existed among some of the regular teachers. Our school secretary was quoted as saying, “Title 1 Tutors should be the best teachers in the building”, yet we were still not seen as doing as much as a regular teacher. Sometimes I thought we did more. At the end of this school year, I was hired as a full time Kindergarten teacher; this will be my first year to compare Title and Regular Ed. It should be interesting!
As I think back to my experience with scope creep, I feel that the better we got, the more things got thrown at us. We got pretty good at juggling, however now that a new person must come in to do the job; I think it is going to be very difficult. For a new person, everything is going to be thrown at them all at once, without the slow addition to the duties. Instead they will be expected to do as we have in the past 4 years, instead of fulfilling the initial duties as I did when I began. I also think that throwing more duties at us, just because we got better at our job, didn’t necessarily feel right to us. It wasn’t the type of reward system I was looking for! As a manager of these new Title 1 Tutors I would have them shadow one of the “experienced” Title 1 Tutors for a week to get a grasp of how to do things, and how not to. I think this sort of apprenticeship would be a good way to “get their toes wet”. This would allow for scope creep/mission creep to be non-existent. The tutors would know their responsibilities from the beginning.
Wade, M. S. (2008, November 21). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2008/11/21/mission-creep-hey-who-changed-my-job-responsibilities
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Great points ... I would think that most people at some point in time have experienced "mission creep." I know I personally have, and actually had a lot of the same sentiments you did. Your comment that "it wasn't the type of reward system I was looking for!" hits the nail on the head!
ReplyDeleteI do think though that there is some difference between mission creep, in your example for a job, versus scope creep on a project. From my perspective, a project generally has more defined start and ending points, deliverables and expectations. I think in a job, there is often the hope that an individual might be able to improve or add new things to the original work scope. However, the real issue arises when that hope turns in to expectation for continual improvement!
Hi Jessica:
ReplyDeleteI also work in a school system and I see how so much is always asked of our teachers and support staff in addition to their formal job description duties. Our course resources tell us that even if we were to warn administrators of job creep issues, that we would likely not be heard. Even if we were to make a written case for changes, we should “be prepared for a 90% chance of project manager veto”(Stolovitch, n.d.). It sounds like that is the situation you found yourself in. In any case, good luck with your new assignment as a teacher!
References
Stolovitch. (n.d.). Managing projects presented for Laureate Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_551248_1%26url%3D
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteI can relate to being what some would refer to as the lowest man on the totem pole but yet the hardest working. When I worked at the technical college here in Charleston, SC, I was a temp employee. We did what the full time employee's didn't want or feel they should do such as: file, input documents into the system when it came through the mail or the front counter, answer phone calls that came in, scan data and retrieve documents and files, however they were quick to say that we just sat around and did nothing while they sat in their offices on the internet(Facebook), texting in between their assigned work and seeing students that may come in. When end of year bonuses came around each got nothing less than a thousand dollars, where as the temps could not get a thank you from them. Well I take that back our supervisor gave us a $5.00 gift card from WalMart this past Christmas.
It does seem that as more work there is thrown down the shoot the more they are looked down on.
As far as the new person coming in I feel confident enough in you that you would be the one to help out, give advise and possibly guide them on the side because you were in those shoes and know what is going to happen.
Good Luck on your next adventure in your career.
Penni
That was indeed a great experience, but as an individual you do not expect to be rewarded with more work as you get better. Persons usually will be more motivated by any form of intrinsic or extrinsic reward. However, you can feel proud of yourself and your accomplishments. As Penni said, that since you are the expert in that position you will be able to guide the new person. As well as advise management on certain things, hoping that they will be willing to listen and take the initiative to implement your suggestions.
DeleteRein
Jessica,
DeleteYou bring up a great point. While you stated that you have never been part of a project in which scope crept, you have seen mission creep.
What you described appeared to be the creation of new positions of Title 1 Tutors in which the job responsibilities grew as the tutors got better at doing their originally assigned tasks. To me it sound like the tutors were burdened with more work as a way to shovel the responsibility off others that would normally do the work but were too overburdened to do it. This is often the case in organizations where the amount of work needed to be done is too much for the current work force. In other word, due to various reasons such as lack of funds, a larger amount of work than expected, and budget constraints, there were just not enough employees to get the job done.
While this is not the same a scope creep, it is similar. For example, imagine a project where the original task was to hire Title 1 Tutors to tutor students who needed help in certain subjects. The scope of the project only included tutoring the students on three specific subject, math, reading, and writing. However, as the project progressed, it seemed like a great idea to have the tutors also tutor students in art, physical education and home economics. Additionally, the tutors were asked to facilitate getting the students back and forth between the classrooms and the tutoring sessions as well as providing the tutoring supplies, such as pencils, paper, text books, and the classroom to do the tutoring in. To carry this one step further, the tutors were asked to come up with a documentation process to record when students were tutored, on what subject, and what their progress is in the tutoring sessions were. Unless these were specifically spelled out in the scope, these would be perfect examples of scope creep.
It seems to me that the teachers, not the tutors, should record when and what the students were tutored on and track their progress though the regular grading process. Burdening the tutors with that responsibility takes time away from their main task, tutoring.
Maybe I am off here, but this seems to be the right thing to do and does not add any undue responsibility to the teacher, the tutors nor the students who may already be stressed by all of the changes.