Scope Creep is a phenomenon that can occur when the scope of a project is not properly defined, documented, or controlled.
One of my most recent client acquisitions is pulling a lot of this. And while I have been re-iterating what is happening every phone call, I have a feeling there will still be questions about the next milestone bill.
Enteryourhours.com, an online hourly billing and project managment tool, recently upgraded everyones account to manage what they call ‘activities’ within a project. I’ve correlated their ‘activites’ to fall inline with the different sections of a scope of work that was originally presented to said client. This helps keep both, me inline, and the client on par with what is happening within each section of a Scope of Work.
So great, I’ve got everything categorized by activity. But what makes it better is that EnterYourHours.com has a recently improved invoicing tool. It has a new feature where you can break out the project in any hierarchy you want. Either by worker, project, activity or by project, then worker, then activity.
This lets me pass along an invoice that has a grand total, followed by a detailed summary of the number of hours spent on each ‘activity’ within single and/or multiple projects currently active with the client.
When the client says, “Why are we over budget?” We’ll both be able to see where things took longer than expected or where the “scope creep” truly started. Putting me in a stronger position when presenting the facts at invoice time.
