Digital Transformation Today

5 Tips For Managing Scope Creep In SharePoint Development

Your team has reviewed the new intranet interface, and the display is fairly consistent across the more popular browsers, like Internet Explorer, Chrome and Safari.

But one of the shareholders — a department head — is unhappy with the design’s appearance in Opera, his preferred browser. While it’s possible to reduce the new site’s variability in browser presentation, it might mean asking the developer to do a lot of extra work.

If the project’s scope hasn’t been firmly established, it’s easy to wander off course while trying to please everyone, and end up with disagreements and strained relationships between those involved with the project. When the project scope is clear, it’s more straightforward: Unless you want to commit the money for a tangential task, it’s time to get back to the main project.

Here are five essentials for managing scope creep in a SharePoint development project:

  1. Mutual education: It’s hard to overstate the importance of education at the beginning of a project. If you’re working with a SharePoint developer on your corporate intranet, for example, you’ll need to educate the development team on how your organization works and your business needs. The developers should also take the time to educate shareholders on the business side, to make sure they understand what the SharePoint platform does, and what their process is for design and development. Without this kind of clarification up front, the organization might end up going back to the developer to insist on some costly out-of-scope customization, because the business users aren’t aware of the SharePoint capabilities that they’ve already paid for. Make sure everyone understands the rationale behind the design process, from discovery and user experience research to design and development, implementation and quality assurance.
  2. Define the minimum viable product (MVP): The idea of a “minimum viable product” comes from Lean and agile manufacturing terminology. Essentially, it’s a way of defining the bare minimum that must be in place by the deadline for an effective product. Even without scope creep problems, defining the MVP is necessary in case the project is running behind, and you need to prioritize certain activities above others in order to hit the deadline.
  3. Clarify responsibilities: SharePoint development is collaborative work, so it’s important to be clear about which party is responsible for every part of the project. If your organization is partnering with a developer, you need to ensure that you’re working collaboratively and understand each other’s roles in the project. When setting responsibilities, the best advice is to paint a realistic picture, and do your best to under-promise and over-deliver. To avoid misunderstandings, especially in brainstorming sessions and similar blue-sky conversations, be very clear about what each party is committing to and what they’re not agreeing to do at this time.
  4. Set expectations early … and reset them often: Unspoken expectations are a big problem when it comes to visual design. People often have an idea in their head of what they hope it will look like, and are easily disappointed when that doesn’t materialize. Subjectivity is unavoidable in visual design, but there are some objective elements in the design process to fall back on for clarification, such as clearly defining the budget requirements in the project scope.
  5. Deemphasize interim deliverables: Another way to avoid scope creep, especially when project budgets are lean, is to deemphasize the interim deliverables. It doesn’t mean you don’t prepare them, but you don’t put as much emphasis on formal presentations for intermediate steps, such as wireframes and mockups and site maps. Focus on getting to the end product as quickly as possible, and leave a certain amount of time for iterations once in SharePoint.

The risk of scope creep hangs over projects of every size and kind, threatening to turn feasible, inexpensive tasks into sprawling money pits that take every bit of time you’ll allow. Scope creep is an inherent risk in collaborative projects; what matters is how you manage that risk.

Learn more about creating the right SharePoint design for your organization by contacting Withum.