Week 6 Blog

Week 6-William Knopf

Scope creep, it happens to even the best plans and best PM. Since I am a homeowner, I have to make sure that the house is kept up and looking at its best. My current home (that I have been in for 8 years) was in a serious need of repairs. As other homeowners know once one thing (appliance, fixture, etc) goes up, others do as well. To be a proactive homeowner my wife and I decided to start some renovations. We sat down and looked at the items that we needed to replace/repair and made a list. According to Stolovitch (2010) one way to keep a project on task is to make a list and then prioritize the items. We did the research for the appliances, the paint, and new fixtures. Then we sat down to find people to assist with the renovations. We looked at friends that we knew had some talents, the professionals (from the phone book), and finally used the internet to look at a few others (Portny, 2008). Once we decided on the contractors for the jobs we started the project. The major things that had to be done were:
1) walls and ceilings painted
2) carpet ripped up and replaced
3) appliances replaced with more efficient ones
The project started with the appliances. We decided after making the list that if we installed them before the other jobs it would be easier and less disruptive to the other jobs. So we hired Sears to replace the trash compactor, dish washer, hot water heater, washer and dryer. We were told by Sears that the whole job would take 3 days to complete. Day one went well; the garbage compactor was installed without any problems. The dishwasher was also supposed to be installed. Here was scope creep number 1; the dishwasher that was there previous was a much older model. Since it was an older model the plumbing was out of code and needed to be replaced before the dishwasher could be installed. Since this was outside the scope and purpose of Sears, we had to locate a plumber and setup appointments. This delayed the dishwasher by a week. As we were waiting for the dishwasher, I instructed Sears to continue with the other installs. The hot water heater, dryer, and washer went in according to the original timeline. However due to the plumber working on the kitchen pipes, I had to delay the painter. Well instead of letting this creep set in, I suggested to the painter to work on all the other rooms and finish the kitchen last. As the painter was working on the fourth day, he threw out his back (not sure how, it was only a small roller set). The painting was then delayed for 3 days. All the while, the carpet people were trying to setup the removal and install of the carpet. Similar to the painter, I rearranged the carpet people to the rooms where the painter was finished. Sounded great at the time, however upon removal of the carpet near the French doors, the floor board was not secure enough for the new carpet. Scope creep came in again! I had to call a handy-man to come in and replace a section of the floor (delay 2 days). Finally the dishwasher was installed, the painter finished the rest of the house, and the carpet was installed. The original timeline for the project was 2 weeks, after scope creep it lasted 5 weeks. Throughout the entire process I had to be flexible and communicate all the changes to the other contractors, this was one of the biggest points from Stolovitch (2010).

If the project was setup by me now after learning about timelines, budgeting and keeping staff on task, I would have changed a few things. In the timeline I would have given each contractor a larger window and stretched the project over a longer period of time to allow for problems. Even though the original plan was to get everything done in 2 weeks, a more realistic number was 4 weeks. Luckily we had extra money set aside for the miscellaneous side jobs needed for the installs. However next time I will add a buffer into the budget of the project.

Sources:
• 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.
• Video Program: “Monitoring Projects”
Dr. Stolovitch discusses how to manage ongoing project activities and overcome challenges as they arise.
• Video Program: “Practitioner Voices: You Can’t Win Them All”
Vince Budrovich shares the experience of a project that wasn’t successful and discusses what he learned from the experience.