Week 6 Blog Assignment - Analyzing Scope Creep

“Project managers must expect change and be prepared to deal with it” (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, & Sutton, 2008, p. 346).

Personal Experience

Just this past weekend, I experienced scope creep. I was contracted to be the photographer of the day for a church members wedding. The fee had been set, as well as the number of shots that the fee included. During our initial meeting the couple was determined to start their wedding on time. Therefore, we agreed in writing, that the photo session would begin on time and any of the wedding party that missed their particular shots would be just that, “missing”. Since I have done several weddings before I pretty much knew the allotted time I would need to get the before wedding pictures that the couple and I had agreed upon. The wedding was to begin at 4:00 and I had made it perfectly clear that the photo sessions would begin at 1:30. It would take me close to an hour and a half to get all of the before shots. The first instance of scope creep crept in around 1:15p.m. The person in charge of letting us into the church called to say that he was stuck in traffic 30 minutes away. So, I was already doomed. Not only that, after he did arrive with the key at close to 2:00, the bride tells me that she is still waiting on three of her bridesmaids, one of which was her best, best friend. I reminded her of our agreement, but she was very reluctant to accept the fact that her best friend would not be in the main pictures. Knowing that this idea was not feasible, I revised my photo line up to include the pictures she would be needed in at the end of the photo session. Although this area of scope creep cost me some time in my planned schedule, it was manageable by simply revising the plan.

Around 3:00, I had taken all of the pictures I needed to take of the wedding party and the groom. During the wedding rehearsal the night before, it was verbally agreed upon that after all photos involving the groom were taken, we would send him in hiding and bring her out for her photo session with and without the wedding party. The decision to do this was based on not having to take an abundance of pictures after the ceremony. So, I go the bridal room prepared to take photos of the bride preparing for her special day. Wouldn’t you know that when I got into the bridal room, the bride decides to tell me that she had changed her mind because now, she didn’t want anyone to see her before she walked down the aisle. This was a major form of scope creep because now this meant that extra time would be needed for more pictures after the wedding, which would delay the time I had allocated out of my day to photograph the wedding and the reception. I was stuck. The contract we had negotiated and signed off on was missing a lot of information that would have helped me avoid these areas of scope creep. I was officially, “the photographer of the DAY”, literally.

Better Managing the Issues

Looking back on this day, there are many things that could have been done to better manage scope creep on this wedding day. For one, I should have planned to meet the man with the key to the building earlier than the time I expected the wedding party to arrive for pictures. This would have allowed some time for a little tardiness in getting into the building. Secondly, the contract should have included a planned scope that outlined a specific amount of time the fee included for me to be the “photographer of the day”, before additional fees would be added. Just during casual conversation, we made a ballpark estimate that my time as, “photographer of the day”, would start around 1:00 with prepare for and shooting the formal pictures, and end around 8:30, after the important reception memories had been captured. Also, the contract agreed upon for this day should have been more detailed and outlined before we agreed on it. I should have got in writing the bride’s plans for her photo session. It should have outlined how time would be managed depending on when she had her photo session and how this would affect the timeline of my schedule as the “photographer of the day”.

All in all, although these areas of scope creep were very frustrating, in the end, all was handled and I’ll chalk it up as a learning experience. I’m in the process of revising my wedding photographer contract to include ways to possibly manage the mentioned areas of scope creep. I’m sure other forms will rear its head further down the road, but I’ll somehow manage to manage it.

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.