6 Easy Ways to Control Scope Creep in Your WordPress Project

Scope

Creep

6 Easy Ways to

Prevent

Using Your WordPress Project Proposal

Image credit – wapu.us

Beth Livingston, M. Ed. Copyright 2018

6 Easy Ways to Control Scope Creep in Your WordPress Project Proposal

Page 1

How a WordPress Project Scope “Creeps” To put it simply, “scope creep” is when your WordPress project slowly moves into work activities

and related costs that weren’t previously agreed upon. This can be caused by the client OR by your own team but generally is the result of one or more of the following:

Lack of clarity and detail in the project

definition documents (requirements)

Beginning design and development

before a thorough requirements discovery process is complete and

before all content has been gathered.

Over-promising with an unrealistic

completion date.

“Gold-plating” disguised as “over-delivering.”

The good news is, if you acknowledge change as inevitable and manage it with a solid change

management plan from the get-go, it IS possible to turn scope creep into opportunities. In other

words, changes along the way are really OK (and expected), as long as you or your agency

gets paid to make the changes.

Common Ways Clients Can Create Scope Creep

“I was sure I told you about ____________. I thought that was included in your quote.” (Don’t fall for this – if it is not written down

and agreed upon through a formal acceptance process, it isn’t a requirement)

“I know we were late providing this content but you can still get this done by ________,

right?” (It is important to ensure the client

knows, from day 1, that anything that is delivered late has an impact on the schedule

and potentially, the cost of the project)

“Your primary contact and subject matter expert had an accident over the weekend and

will be out for 2 weeks but his assistant can help. OK?” (Unless the assistant has the

exact same skill set and can provide the

exact same subject matter expertise, an

impact to the schedule is likely.)


Page 2

Common Ways Your Agency Can Create Scope Creep

“That’s a small change, we’ll just throw that in.” (the client WILL expect you to do it again

next time)

“I knew you would want that so I went ahead and added it.” (This is called ‘gold-plating’ and is never a good idea. The client will expect the next newly-desired feature to also be added at no charge. If you like to “over deliver” then find some other way to do it.)

“The change control process will take too long, we’ll just do it so we can meet the date.” (you meet the date but it costs you more in labor so you end up making less for the

project – the client wins, you lose)

“We’ll just go ahead and start even though we don’t have all the requirements ironed out yet.” (This is a surefire way to create re-work which is pure, unadulterated scope creep).

Why My Approach Works

Once upon a time I worked for an IT Consulting firm based in Boston called Keane, Inc. John Keane, the founder and CEO, had a study done as to why projects almost always run over time

and over budget and from that, he created the 6 Principles of Productivity Management.

He published this in the form of a book (3 editions) that became

the bible for the way projects were run at Keane.

These principles were built into ALL the software development

methodologies we followed because they worked.

By strictly adhering to these principles Keane was consistently

rated CMM Level 5 in their application development center and Level 3 on several long term projects. CMM is the SEI Capability

Maturity Model that evaluates the maturity of your development

and management processes. And, they were consistently a

Leader the Gartner Magic Quadrant for their “ability to execute,” consistently getting projects done on time and within budget.

https://www.gartner.com/en/research/methodologies/magic-quadrants-research


Page 3

But that’s for software development. How does this apply to a WordPress project?

In the chart below are the original 6 principles as John Keane devised them along with how I’ve modified them slightly to fit a WordPress project. And they STILL work.

Keane’s Original Principles For WordPress

Define the Job in Detail Define the Job in Detail with a Content First Approach

Get the Right People Involved Get the Right Resources Involved (People, Plugins, and Blocks)

Estimate the Time and Costs Estimate the Time and Costs Often

Break the Job Down Break the Job Down

Establish a Change Procedure Establish and Stick To a Change Procedure

Establish Acceptance Criteria Establish Interim and Final Acceptance Criteria

In truth, these principles are really just common sense methods for being productive

when carrying out a task or set of tasks. The problem is, we often forget to apply them day-to-day and they can be equally effective for website development, a fund-raiser at

church, or tiling your kitchen floor. It has been proven, many times over, that if you infuse

these principles into your Project Management approach, you can indeed control scope

creep and thereby get your projects done on time and within budget.

First things being first, let’s look at 6 Easy Ways to infuse these principles into

your proposal to begin controlling scope creep (before the project is even

approved).

If you want to learn how to apply these principles end-to-end, from

proposal to project completion, to ensure your projects are completed on

time and within budget, be sure to stay tuned because I will be launching a

comprehensive course, The Complete Project Management Roadmap

for WordPress in early 2019. Go here to learn more or just watch your

inbox. (Be sure [email protected] is whitelisted in your email

system so you don’t miss early discounts.)

https://wproadmaps.com/wordpress-project-manager-roadmap-landing-page/

https://wproadmaps.com/wordpress-project-manager-roadmap-landing-page/


Page 4

1. Educate the Client with a Clear Management Plan Often the client does not have project management experience and, therefore, does

not understand how web development

projects are generally managed. For

example, they may not be familiar with how their role changes between the planning

stage and development stage. Many clients

have the perception that once a design and

layout is agreed upon, they will hand the project off to you and then you will deliver the

website on a specified date. They often fail to

fully understand that their ongoing involvement is necessary in gathering and organizing

content, reviewing and approving deliverables, managing change, and testing the website (often more than once), to name a few.

The Management Plan section of the proposal is where you essentially communicate your

agency’s approach to competently managing the project plan, communication, issues, etc.

You can also use this section to begin controlling scope creep by clearly explaining the role(s) the client will play in the “management” of the project such as:

Being available to provide input when requested

Approving individual interim deliverables in a timely manner

Being available to receive and review status reports

Resolving conflicts or differences of opinions

Serving as final decision-maker

It is not necessary to spell out the exact activities where their involvement will be required yet – that comes later when you develop your Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) or project

plan. The most important thing here is to include verbiage that indicates development is a

team effort between your agency AND the client’s organization.

In my WordPress Project Template Toolbox I have a proposal

template that includes boilerplate language for a Management Plan that

you can customize for the way your agency does business.

Using a Content-First Approach to Control Scope Creep

I am a big believer in NOT starting development until ALL content has been received from

the client. One big reason for this is to control scope creep. Very often, while content is being created and organized, new requirements are uncovered. In the Management Plan

section of my proposals I include a description of my content-first approach, why I do it, and

how I do it. This sets the proper expectation for the client regarding their involvement in this

task. Very often this discussion results in the client requesting additional services for me to help with assembling the content. It’s an easy upsell.

https://wproadmaps.com/wordpress-project-template-toolbox


Page 5

2. Go Further with the Project Scope Definition The key purpose of the Project Scope section is to identify the boundaries (areas of responsibility) for the project. Typically, an activity or deliverable is IN scope if it is necessary

for the completion of the project. You should list everything.

For examples of what is often included in a WordPress Project

Scope section, see this article on our website.

I have found that it works best to break this section down into 3 sub-sections:

In Scope (and YOUR agency’s responsibility)

In Scope (and the CLIENT’S responsibility)

Out of Scope

There is no room for ambiguity or assumptions regarding project scope.

For example, if your proposal includes premium (paid) plugins and your cost estimate does

not include the cost of these plugins, it should be included in the Project Scope section as the customer’s responsibility on top of the project’s estimated cost. Likewise, if the client

intends to manage their site on their own after it goes live, you will want to clearly state that

a maintenance plan is out of scope and that ongoing maintenance will be performed by the

client.

https://wproadmaps.com/define-wordpress-project-scope/


Page 6

3. Be Clear on Acceptance Criteria Every WordPress Project Proposal should include a section that describes your Acceptance Management Plan where you detail the process including:

a definition of acceptance

what “things” will require acceptance (approval)

who has approval authority

timelines for acceptance

Be sure to spell out that a written document or form will be used for all items submitted for acceptance.

Acceptance plans that are structured as a series of

small acceptances, rather than as one large

occurrence at the end of the WordPress project, work best. If this is your approach, make it clear in this

section that there is not just one final approval when

the site goes live.

To address potential scope creep in this section,

clearly spell out what “done” means in a way that is specific, testable, and measurable. For example, it is

not enough to say, “The project will be considered complete when the website is live.” It is better to use criteria such as:

contains all the pages in the agreed upon site map meets all the requirements specified in the detailed requirements document displays the agreed upon branding specifications the client’s staff has been fully trained to add blog posts etc…

You should also mention that each deliverable will also have a set of detailed acceptance

criteria but that will be developed later.


Page 7

4. Establish and Stick to a Change Management Plan While it may seem obvious, it bears noting that the Change Management Plan section of

the proposal is where you REALLY educate the client about how changes will be handled

and how you ensure none of the scenarios on page 1 occur.

Many agencies will make mistake

of developing a precise project estimate during the proposal

phase (pretending to be perfect at

it) and then adding a “pad” to cover possible change. A pad is an unspecified amount of money

or hours scattered secretly and

arbitrarily throughout a project’s tasks and activities attempting cover anything from a minor feature change to a zombie apocalypse.

The problem with a pad is that no one knows how much it is, where it is, or what it is

supposed to be used for – it’s not measurable. And, because we can effectively manage

ONLY that which is visible and known, we cannot expect something like an invisible pad to be manageable. Instead, it works best to acknowledge with the client that project change is inevitable and then use a Change Budget. This is also the “secret sauce” for ALWAYS coming in under budget. (If you don’t use all the change budget, you came in UNDER!!!)

For more information on avoiding the pad technique using a change budget, see Tip #5 - Include

Potential Change in the Estimates without Padding.

With that said, if your agency does not have a

written, standard Change Management Plan and

Procedure, you absolutely need to develop one.

Click here to see ours inside our WordPress Project Template

Toolbox

It should include an explanation of why change management is necessary, the criteria for

change, the concept of the change budget, and it should state, in no uncertain terms, that the change control procedure laid out will be strictly implemented without exception. Most

clients respect this approach, especially when you explain that you will analyze all requested changes for time and cost impact but THEY will control whether change is implemented or

not (this is actually a selling point because you don’t pad the quote like other agencies usually do and the client controls the change process).

In this section of the proposal, you should let the customer know:

You and your team are very good at defining WordPress websites (getting the

details right) but neither you nor the client are perfect.

It is possible your agency might forget to ask something or they may forget to tell you

something or new ideas might come forth that are worthy of including.

https://wproadmaps.com/wordpress-project-template-toolbox


Page 8

Your agency DOES NOT pad quotes like other agencies often do and you prefer to

acknowledge change and allow the client to manage it.

Your estimates (that come later in the proposal) will include a Change Budget that is

over and above what you estimate the actual cost of the project will be and is reserved exclusively for change.

By managing and measuring change in this way and using a change budget instead of a

pad, your numbers will be honest and truly helpful to YOU for the next estimate you prepare.

At a very minimum, your Change Management Plan should include:

The definition of change and the different types of change that may occur

Examples of project change

The concept of the Change Budget

Who can initiate a change request

How should the change request be documented and submitted

Who will analyze the change request for project impact

Who will approve or reject the change request

When will the costs associated with a change be invoiced


Page 9

5. Include Potential Change Estimates without Padding Estimating is hard and there is, unfortunately, no magic formula or algorithm for creating the perfect WordPress project estimate. The biggest mistake WordPress Practitioners tend to

make when estimating is being too precise in the Time and Cost Estimates section of the

proposal, before the nitty gritty details are uncovered during discovery activities. Sure, most

agencies have a set of questions they ask in order to prepare the proposal but rarely does that process uncover all of the requirements.

Avoid premature cost precision.

For this reason, I ONLY include an estimate range for both time and cost in the proposal

and then provide a more precise estimate when the detailed requirements are complete.

Along with the estimates provided in this proposal section, I also always explain:

The estimate is presented as a range because I know we don’t yet have all the details (because we haven’t yet created the comprehensive requirements).

Unlike other agencies that will often pad a quote to cover unknowns, my team and I do not try to estimate what we don’t yet know.

My team and I will refine the estimates again during creation of the Statement of

Work (the document I use for the comprehensive project definition).

If the new estimate that is prepared later with the Statement of Work exceeds the

range approved in the proposal, the client has the option to cancel the contract.

Read this article to learn the reasons I do it this way.

Along with the ranges for the time estimate and the cost estimate, I also include a range for the Change Budget. I usually structure the budget estimate something like this:

https://wproadmaps.com/why-we-use-a-2-step-wordpress-project-proposal-approach


Page 10

Here’s how it works.

Let’s say you believe you can complete the project for $3500 so you have created a

cost estimate range of $2000 - $5000 for

approval (this is just an example - how you

determine the range is different for each

project). This is the baseline budget.

Then I create a separate budget item called

Change and include an ADDITIONAL $600

- $1500 on top of the baseline budget (I

usually use 30% as a guideline).

NOTE - Clients who initially balk at this end

up liking it when you explain that THEY are

the ones who get to determine if the

change budget is used or not.

Now let’s assume that when you create the more precise estimate as part of the

comprehensive Statement of Work (or whatever you use for approval of the full site

design), the estimate comes in at $4200 which is within the range already approved by

the client. The change budget would be re-estimated at $1260 (in this case, 30% of $4200).

Then, during development, let’s assume the customer requests an additional page be

added to the site that will take you 15 minutes to complete. That’s when the Change

Management Plan is invoked that could look like this:

1. You or the client completes the request portion of the Change Request form and

submits it to the Project Manager (which also might be you).

2. The Project Manager reviews the Request, completes the “impact” section, and returns it to the client for review and acceptance. (If it is a complicated a change a walkthrough might be needed).

3. The Client approver either accepts or rejects the change based on the impact it will

(or will not) have on the project.

4. You invoice the client for the change amount (if applicable). NOTE – for very small

amounts, I will sometimes wait and add this to the final invoice.

While this may seem time-consuming for such a small change, by following your change control process for each and every change, regardless of size, without exception, you

ensure you get paid for ALL the work you do and the client will be less likely to suggest unnecessary or frivolous changes.


Page 11

6. Develop a Set of Proposal Frequently Asked Questions

By including a Frequently Asked Questions section in your proposal, you can further

clarify your efforts to control the project scope and involve the client in the change process.

Here are some of the questions I usually include, and then I modify the list for each proposal

depending on the client and the project specifics previously documented. The questions

related to scope creep are shown in bold.

1. Where is the website hosted?

2. Why do you use WordPress?

3. Who do I call if something breaks or I can’t figure something out?

4. What happens after the website goes live?

5. How will I know how many people are visiting my site?

6. What happens if we want to add something or forgot to tell you something we

need on our website?

7. What happens if we are late with content we are supposed to provide?

8. What happens if we are late approving an interim deliverable?

9. What happens if members of the team leave or join the project?

10. How will I know if a change should be approved or not?

11. Will you use the Change Control Procedure for every change even if it doesn’t impact the time or cost?

12. Why do you wait until we have given you all the content before beginning

development? Doesn’t this waste time? 13. What kind of documentation will you provide?

14. Do you provide training? How is training delivered?

15. Will I be able to change the website on my own?

16. What happens if I change something on the website and I mess it up?

17. What kind of ongoing maintenance plans do you offer?

The answers to these questions will depend on the details of the Change

Management Plan your agency has adopted. When I release the Complete

Project Management Roadmap for WordPress, it will include the verbiage I

use to answer these questions.


Page 12

Summary WordPress project scope creep is when you end up involved in work activities that weren’t

previously agreed upon, thereby reducing your project ROI.

Scope creep can be caused by the client OR by your own team unless you establish

methods for preventing it.

You can begin preventing scope creep on your project, before the project is approved, by

including the following in your project proposal:

1. A Management Plan section that describes how you use a content-first approach, how you will manage requests for change, and how acceptance (approval) will be managed.

2. A Project Scope section that includes what is In-Scope and Out-of-Scope and details

which of the in-scope items are the client’s responsibility.

3. An Acceptance Management section that lists the process and the criteria that will be used to determine that the project is complete.

4. A Change Management section that defines change, spells out how change requests

will be managed, and explains the concept of a change budget.

5. A Cost and Time Estimates section that includes only a range of time and cost along with details regarding the change budget estimate.

6. A Frequently Asked Questions section that includes the most commonly asked

questions regarding change.


Page 13

About the Author Every job I have had since college involved some form of making complicated information easy to understand. It’s what I do. It’ my jam! In 2016, I decided to leave the corporate world (where I had served for 25+ years as an IT

Business Analyst, Project Manager, and Instructional Designer) to form my own business, and after a few false

starts and pivots, today I enjoy helping small businesses and

individual professionals reach their goals with WordPress

and Project Management.

Here’s the fuller story:

After graduate school, I used my Instructional Design degree

as the Training Director for a small transportation software company which eventually morphed

into a career as an IT Business Analyst working on projects at American Express, GMAC Insurance, Wachovia Bank (now Wells Fargo), and others.

In 2010, as a side-job, I started working on a web app that in 2013 won 3rd place at Startup

Weekend, the first time it was held in the Triad region of NC. It was an automated grocery

saving tool that would notify you when and where your favorite products were on sale. Great idea! - BUT by the time I was ready to launch it, the economy had improved so much that I

couldn’t find my audience, so I shelved the project. But in the meantime, I learned a LOT about

WordPress.

So much so, that I left my corporate job in 2016 to become a WordPress Coach – and I started helping folks (individuals and small businesses) learn to use WordPress to meet their business

objectives. The business was successful and I still do some of this type of coaching today. (It

keeps my WordPress skills honed.)

At the same time, I started attending WordCamps and I kept hearing the same complaints from WordPress practitioners (agencies and individuals who build WordPress websites for other

people).

They complained about scope creep

They complained about how to “control” their clients

They complained about how to get the content from their clients

And I thought, “I can help these folks with that.” So now I am taking what I know about how to manage projects in the corporate world and I am creating online education for those WordPress

Practitioners who want to improve how they plan, manage, and deliver WordPress projects.

While I also offer Project Management Process Improvement consulting and coaching services,

my primary goal is creating online courseware and highly usable templates to help WordPress service providers get from point A to point B more efficiently… sort of like a roadmap.

Which is why the name of my company and website is WPROADMAPS - I sincerely hope you

find these tools helpful.

6 Easy Ways to Control Scope Creep in Your WordPress Project

Documents