Playbook
Scope keeps growing
New requests arrive through side doors, and the end date stays the same.
First 24 hours
- List everything added since the baseline.
- Measure its impact on time and cost.
- Find the source: one person or a vague scope.
Then
- Restart change control, however small each request looks.
- Offer a swap: new item in, another out.
- Clarify exclusions with the sponsor.
- Show the growth on a burnup chart.
Message you can adapt
Since March, 14 items have joined the scope, adding about 5 weeks of work. We can keep June only if we choose what comes out. Could we take 30 minutes this week to decide?
Avoid
Don’t absorb “small favours” silently. They add up, and nobody sees them.
Tools for this
Last reviewed 2026-11-02 · Practitioner review pending