Question

How can the project manager ensure that a project will definitely end rather than become an ongoing project with added features to the project deliverables?

Answer 1

A project continues to proceed indefinitely because of the following reasons:

1. The scope of the project is not well defined.

2. The project team hasn't understood the requirement properly, as a result the client is not satisfied and keeps on adding features.

This is called Scope Creep. A project manager can take the following steps to ensure that the project will read to a define conclusion by taking the following measures:

1. Understand the need correctly, get those documented and get it signed from all the stake holders.

2. Clearly mention what is in the scope and what is out of scope.

3. Let the team understand the fact that this damages company's reputation and that new input shouldn't be entertained in the current project. Although a Phase 2 can be launched to add new features.

4. Let the client know that all features cannot be added in one go. Let them use the current product for a certain period of time, if all goes fine the new features can be added as an extension to the existing project.