Health Finance DB 2 Essay Example

Health and Social Care

Identify and discuss strategies for managing project scope creep

Project scope creeprefers to the uncontrolled changes that occur in the scope of a project and in the process causing adverse negative effects to the project.

There are various strategies for managing project scope creep and these include the following;

Thoroughly understanding the project vision; The project manager should get together with the project coordinators and come up with a summary of the project in general for their assessment and observations. This can help in the management of project scope creep as the personnel in the project are in a position to work in accordance to the project vision, mission and objectives (Kendrick, 2009).

Understanding the priorities
of the project drivers; the project manager should make a controlled list that he/she can refer to during the project period. He/she should take budgets, time limits, features delivery, client satisfaction and workers satisfaction into consideration. The Project manager can use this list to rationalize his/her scheduling decisions once the project has started (Cleland and Ireland 2004).

Defining of deliverables; The project manager should define his/her deliverables and have then accepted by the project drivers. Deliverables are broad explanation of the project’s functionality so as to govern the operations of the project (Carr, Englehardt, and Tuman, 2004).

Break the accepted deliverables into definite work requirements. The requirements must be as thorough as possible and can be accomplished by means of worksheet. The bigger the project, the more detail ought to be incorporated. If the project goes for more than one month, time for software upgrading and ample documentations during the project should be included (Kendrick, 2009).

Creating schedule
guide and breaking the project into main and minor targets; Minor targets should not go for a period of more than a month. The project manager should always leave room for error no matter which method he/she uses to determine task duration. If the project schedule is tight, the project manager should reassess his/her deliverables. The project manager should leave space for extra development between budget and schedule (Cleland and Ireland 2004).

Assigning resources and determining critical path by means of a project evaluation and review technique chart or work breakdown structure. The critical path helps in altering the path of the project, hence, it is significant to assess it before development commences. The project manager should follow this path to find out which deliverables should be finished on time. For big projects, the project managers should not define phase particular very early but even a general plan will provide the backbone needed for successful delivery (Carr, Englehardt, and Tuman, 2004).

Expect that there will be scope creep; the project manager should execute change order forms early and inform the project coordinators on his/her change processes. Change order forms allow the project manager to carry out a cost-benefit analysis prior to scheduling changes demanded by the project coordinators (Kendrick, 2009).

These actions performed in a dedicated way clearly pave way for the success of the project through effectively managing project scope creep that may adversely affect the project’s operations thus a better way of project management.

References:

Carr, G., Englehardt, G.and Tuman, J. 2004. Energizing Project teams, Field Guide to project management, Cleland, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.

Cleland, D.I. and Ireland, L.R., 2004. Project Management strategies Design and Implementation (4^th Ed) McGraw-Hill, New York.

Kendrick, T., 2009. Identifying and managing project Risk: Essential Tools for Failure-Proofing your Project, AMACOM, United States of America.