Ever heard of the scope creep? It’s a creature that lurks in the shadows of any project and tends to emerge when things are already in full swing. It has multiple heads. Each of them uncontrollably spitting out new wishes, ambitions, and requirements—wreaking havoc on your budget and timeline. Worst of all, it’s a creature that cannot be killed or shooed away. It is always there. The good news? You can put it on a leash and keep it under control.

Well, that’s the dramatic version of the scope creep phenomenon. More formally, scope creep can be defined as “the continuous or uncontrolled growth in a project’s scope, generally experienced after the project begins”*. Left unmanaged, it leads to delays, budget overruns, and compromised quality.

Any project manager will recognise this. For example: you’re building a new subway line, and halfway through excavation, a politician calls for an extra station. Or you’re working on a state-of-the-art lab facility, and due course the researchers purchase new equipment that demand more power and ventilation than anticipated. And then there are external factors—like new regulations or geopolitical changes—that may suddenly push the project in a new direction.

In short: requirements are rarely static. Changes will happen. And if you’re not prepared, the consequences can be harsh—delays, spiralling costs, and frustrated stakeholders.

How to keep the creep under control? Here are a few simple steps to stop it from running wild:

Carefully define your scope
One of the most avoidable causes of scope creep is failing to create a solid project brief. Without a clear brief, you won’t know what you’re aiming for—let alone how to control it. A good brief answers fundamental questions: Why are we doing this project? What outcomes should it deliver? How big is it (e.g., number of housing units, workplaces, subway stops)? What key features should it include? And how ambitious should it be on topics like sustainability and health and safety—minimum compliance or best-in-class? If these questions aren’t answered, your scope is guaranteed to drift.

Engage with stakeholders
Defining the project’s scope means talking to the people who will use, operate, fund the result. Building a new bridge? You will be dealing with local authorities, environmental groups, and nearby residents. A hospital? Think of doctors, patient representatives and health officials. You won’t be able to satisfy all of them, but by engaging early, you can manage expectations and input. What you want to prevent is a key stakeholder popping up halfway through with requirements no one saw coming.

Document your project requirements
Without proper documentation, there’s nothing to protect when changes come knocking. In small projects, you can use a simple Word document or Excel sheet to document your project requirements. But for complex projects with thousands of requirements and many stakeholders, you need something more robust—like BriefBuilder. You will want to create a central repository with all requirements—a single source of truth—so that everyone is working with the same requirements.

Link scope changes to the budget and timeline
One of the classic mistakes in projects is assuming that new ideas can simply be squeezed into the existing budget and schedule. Scope changes aren’t free. Every new wish, extra feature, or updated requirement will have an impact on time and money—even if decision-makers like to believe otherwise. That’s why it’s essential to assess the impact of any change before agreeing to it. What will it cost? How much extra time will it take? What are the knock-on effects No change should be implemented without a clear understanding of its consequences and formal approval to match.

Manage changes properly
Change isn’t always a bad thing. New insights, improved solutions, and unavoidable external shifts are part of any complex project. But to keep control, you need a clear change management process. That means: a formal change request process, impact analysis (see above), decision-making and approvals, and a change log to track what’s changed, when, and why. This is where proper tooling, like BriefBuilder, really shines. It helps you structure the process, track every change, communicate changes to the design team and contractors, and ensure nothing slips through the cracks.

Final thought
In project management, time and costs often steal the spotlight. But ignore requirements at your peril. They are the backbone of your project, and they deserve your full attention.

Scope creep may never fully disappear, but with the right approach—and the right tools—you can keep it firmly on the leash. 😊

 

(*) Lewis, James (2002). Fundamentals of Project Management (Second ed.).