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Investigating the major causes of scope creep in real estate construction

projects in Ghana

Article  in  Journal of Facilities Management · July 2017

DOI: 10.1108/JFM-11-2016-0052

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 Journal of Facilities Management
Investigating the major causes of scope creep in real estate construction projects
in Ghana
Charles Teye Amoatey, Betty Asantewaa Anson,
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Charles Teye Amoatey, Betty Asantewaa Anson, (2017) "Investigating the major causes of scope
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Causes of
Investigating the major causes scope creep in
of scope creep in real estate real estate

construction projects in Ghana

Charles Teye Amoatey and Betty Asantewaa Anson 393
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Business School, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration,

Achimota, Ghana Received 28 November 2016
Revised 31 January 2017
6 February 2017
Accepted 6 February 2017

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the causes of scope creep on project completion in the
real estate development industry in Ghana.
Design/methodology/approach – Both simple random sampling and convenience sampling techniques
were used in selecting the respondents for the study. The respondents were experts working in the real estate
development industry in Ghana.
Findings – Results from the study showed that the most critical factors that cause scope creep in the
Ghanaian real estate development industry are client changes, unforeseen risks and unclear scope. Mitigating
measures for addressing these factors were proposed.
Research limitations/implications – This paper is limited to causes of scope creep in the real estate
development industry in Ghana based on data collected from only real estate development firms in Accra. Due
to geographic constraints, the researcher was unable to sample real estate development companies across the
entire country. The finding of this study may not be generalised since causes of scope creep can be unique to
individual country contexts.
Practical implication – This paper has documented the critical causes of scope creep and its major
impacts on project completion in the real estate development industry in Ghana. The results will help project
managers in the industry to appreciate the causes of scope creep and its effect on project completion as well as
increase the quality of economics on real estate management and reduce the costs and risks of housing of
delivery in the country.
Originality/value – The paper examined the causes and mitigation of project scope creep in the Ghanaian
context.
Keywords Ghana, Construction, Real estate development industry, Scope change, Scope creep
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
The real estate industry encompasses many facets of property, including development,
appraisal, marketing, selling, leasing and management of commercial, industrial, residential
and agricultural properties (Real Estate Ranking and Review, 2015). It can be categorised into
several types depending on its purpose as residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural and
special purpose (Galaty et al., 2003). According to Kongela (2013), real estate development is a
major component of national economies. In 2010, the sector contributed 15-28 per cent of gross
domestic products (GDPs) of some European countries as well as 5 and 12.6 per cent of the
GDPs of India and China, respectively. Real estate development is the largest component of
wealth and has been estimated to represent approximately one-half of the world’s wealth Journal of Facilities Management
(Ghana Real Estate Professional Association, 2014). Vol. 15 No. 4, 2017
pp. 393-408
Rapid population growth, urbanisation and economic boom in Ghana are creating an © Emerald Publishing Limited
1472-5967
increasing demand for renovated and new residential and commercial buildings. DOI 10.1108/JFM-11-2016-0052
 JFM Throughout the country, and especially in the densely populated urban areas, construction
15,4 is developing at a rapid pace to meet rising demand (Ahmed et al., 2014). With the
population increasing by 30.4 per cent since 2000 and urban residents growing from 43.8 per
cent of the overall populace in 2000 to 50 per cent in 2010, Ghana will need an estimated 2
million new housing units by 2020 (Ghana Report, 2012).
Although the residential sub-sector is the largest contributor to construction output in
394 Ghana, its potential is not fully realised. A comparison between Ghana and other sub-
Saharan African countries shows that the country’s urban population is very poorly housed,
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with as much as 60 per cent of all urban households occupying single rooms and only a
quarter of households owning their dwelling units [United Nations Human Settlements
Programme (UN-Habitat, 2011)]. Also, while most of the country’s urban housing stock is
reasonably well-built and secure, approximately 90 per cent of it is informal – in the sense
that it is built outside the control and regulations of formal state institutions – and most
homes are poorly serviced and overcrowded.
Trends in Ghana’s housing demand and housing stock (supply) between 1970 and 2010
are shown in Figure 1. As depicted in Figure 1, the country has not only experienced a
housing deficit (measured as excess of housing demand over housing supply), but the deficit
has been increasing since 1970. For example, in 1970, the housing deficit was 736,657
dwelling units but this increased to 1.356 million dwelling units in 2010. The UN-Habitat
(2011) estimates that, to remove the deficit, equivalent of about 2 million self-contained
dwellings (assuming one dwelling per household) would be required by 2020.
The huge housing deficit can partly be attributed to the fact that most home owners self-
finance the construction of their housing using personal or household savings, thereby using
very long construction periods, as they need a considerable amount of time to raise money
for each stage of the construction process (Badu & Owusu-Manu, 2011; UN-Habitat, 2011).
The implication of the above statistics is that employment and income generation and
urban economic growth will be greatly enhanced if Ghana could find a way to rapidly
accelerate housing construction to remove the deficit. This is particularly so in view of the

5.00
4.75
4.50

4.00
3.71
3.50 3.39
3.00

2.50 2.41
2.18
2.00
1.68
1.50
1.23
1.00 0.94
0.50

0.00
1970 1984 2000 2010
Figure 1.
Trends in housing Housing supply Housing demand
demand and housing
supply (in millions)
Source: Authors’ construct based on data extracted from UN-HABITAT (2011)
 fact that housing construction in the country relies heavily on the services of artisans with Causes of
low-grade skills rather than architects and engineers (Badu & Owusu-Manu, 2011). scope creep in
Again, though Ghana’s real estate industry sector has been very supportive of the
country’s socio-economic growth over many years, the industry is faced with many risks
real estate
such as project delays and scope creep with associated impact on firms’ profitability. Several
studies have provided evidence indicating the prevalence of project delays in Ghana and
other parts of the world. A study by Social Security and National Insurance Trust (2013)
revealed that about 4,700 state housing projects in Ghana have been stalled or completely
395
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abandoned due to varying reasons. A recent research conducted by the Global Environment
Facility’s Small Grants programme in Ghana show that 28 per cent of all community-based
projects undertaken in the country become a failure. Zuber (2014) found that only 18 per cent
of all projects are successful, over 43 per cent of projects are delayed and over 59 per cent
exceed the defined budget. Most of these delays have been associated with project scope
creep. Several research have investigated the causes of scope variation, but few have
documented its prevalence and impacts on the performance of the real estate development
industry.
Before proceeding further, we attempt to clear the conceptual misunderstanding or
confusion around the terms “scope creep” (which is the focus of this paper) and “scope
change”. It needs to be made clear that changes to scope are not necessarily scope creep.
Nelson (2015) viewed scope changes as changes to the current project scope that are known
and accepted by both parties (Owner & Contractor). These can be changes that are
reimbursable, or changes that the Contractor agrees to (or at least knows about) without
compensation. The key is that both the Owner and Contractor are aware of the changes and
their impact to the project (quality, cost, schedule), and have agreed to incorporate them. On
the other hand, scope creep refers to changes made to the project where:
(1) one side is not aware of the changes;
(2) there is no agreement by the parties involved; or
(3) there is no review or acceptance of potential impacts.

The observations illustrated above calls for more in-depth understanding of scope creep in
Ghana’s real estate industry. For instance, it is very important to address the following
issues: What are the major causes of scope creep in the real estate industry of Ghana? What
measures are project parties putting in place to mitigate the effects of scope creep? Ghana’s
real estate industry players recognise the need to execute or complete projects on time to
remain competitive and win clients’ satisfaction; however, information on causes, effects and
potential ways of managing scope creep is lacking.
The purpose of this study was to analyse the impacts of scope creep on project
completion in the real estate development industry in Ghana. A thorough understanding of
these impacts and their underlying causes would be useful to managers and construction
companies interested in the timely completion of projects and in achieving the greatest
standards in client satisfaction.
This paper makes a valuable contribution to the field of scope creep management in the
real estate industry, and highlights innovative approaches to managing these risks from a
developing country perspective. The remainder of the paper is organised as follows. The
next section discusses previous related studies on scope creep in the construction sector.
This is followed by a presentation of the methodology of the study. The fourth section
discusses the key findings from the study. The fifth section identifies measures for
minimising scope creep in the real estate. Finally, the research conclusions are presented.
 JFM 2. Previous studies
15,4 Several researchers have investigated the causes of scope creep, its effect on project
completion and how best it can be managed. Hence, this section reviews some of the major
causes of scope creep, its effect and ways of managing them.

2.1 What is project scope creep?

396 Previous authors have defined scope creep differently. Neimat (2005) defined scope
creep as uncontrolled and unexpected changes in user expectations and requirements
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as a project progresses. Hussain (2012) posited that scope creep is a change which
happens slowly and unofficially, without changing due dates or otherwise making
adjustments to the budget, or the tendency for a project to extend beyond its initial
boundaries. Gurlen (2003) suggested that scope creep represents the change or growth
of project scope or the pressure to deliver more than what was agreed to originally. For
professional services, scope creep refers to when the tasks required for a project extend
beyond initial expectations (Freshman-Caffrey, 2014). The Project Management
Institute identified scope creep as the incremental expansion of the project’s scope, for
example, through additional work requests without the necessary readjustment to the
cost or schedule (Retana, 2014). Helms (2012) submitted that scope creep is the
pejorative name given to the natural process by which clients discover what they really
want. According to this author, most project managers try their best to discover what
clients want at the beginning of the project by using meetings, questionnaires and
personal interviews and still, the most common experience for developers delivering a
final product is customer dissatisfaction. Finally, Bronstein (2010) posited that scope
creep is often gradual and not noticed immediately and that this change in scope often
comes about from small, seemingly insignificant change requests that the project team
accepts to keep the project sponsor happy which eventually become numerous enough
and significant.
From the above definitions, it can be concluded that scope creep could be viewed as any
uncontrolled and unexpected changes in project requirement that extend the initial
boundaries of the project. These changes do not take into consideration the completion date
or schedule as well as the budget of the project.
Thakore (2010) categorised scope creep into two main types, i.e. technical and business
scope creep. According to the author, technical scope creep can show up when the project
team wants to please the customer and is not able to reject the customer’s request for a
change in the requirements during project execution. Another common cause of technical
scope creep is gold plating, which describes the situation where the project team adds
additional features and functionality that are not part of the original requirements to please
the customer. He further posited that business scope creep, on the other hand, occurs due to
external forces that may be beyond the control of the project manager. An example is the
continual changes in market trends, which makes previously defined requirements obsolete.

2.2 Factors that cause project scope creep

Scope creep may result from a number of factors, ranging from a lack of clear definition of
the scope, attempts by employees to improve a product, unwillingness to say no to clients, to
lack of formal review and approval processes.
Gurlen (2003) advanced that when a project scope is not originally clearly defined, many
misunderstandings on what is to be accomplished or how it will be accomplished can result,
leading the project in unintended directions and resulting in scope creep. Turk (2010) noted
that too often, scopes are poorly written and may lack clarity or detail. For instance, the
 scopes may be ambiguous, vague or not understandable and may be contradictory; the end Causes of
users or potential customers may not have been involved, and the requirements may not be scope creep in
organised and prioritised. Gurlen (2003) further added that as a team proceeds through the real estate
various phases of a project, frequently, one or more of the team members will strive to
improve or perfect the situation or product and this may result in a change of the project
scope. Also, as the team proceeds through a project, one may become more knowledgeable
about an aspect of the project or with regards to a potential solution than one previously 397
was, thus prompting a change in previously defined requirements or direction.
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Unwillingness to say no to a client can also bring about scope creep. Turk (2012) noted
that the client is ultimately in charge in that he or she is footing the bill and is the person to
whom the project is delivered. He emphasised that too often, project managers are
intimidated by the client and are afraid to say “no”. Some managers also want to be seen as
the good, can-do guys who do not want to antagonise the client. He cautioned that reticence
could be a precursor to failure.
Wiegers (2000) advanced that, sometimes, developers or project managers agree to make
suggested changes without carefully thinking through the implications. The change might
turn out to be more complex than anticipated, take longer than promised, be technically or
economically infeasible or conflict with other requirements.
Changes in personnel responsible for the project implementation may also result in scope
creep. When the right people are not allowed to accept changes, scope creep can occur. Often,
it is someone other than the Project Manager or project team who accepts the change and
then passes it to the team, which is not the same as having a person or group to review and
approve changes within a formal process Turk (2012).
External entities to the organisation can also bring about changes in the scope of a
project. Gurlen (2003) gave examples of such external entities as legislation, regulatory,
technologies being utilised or market changes which are inevitable due to external market
conditions such as competitors’ product or service enhancements. All these items are out of
the control of the project team or their company.

2.3 Scope creep in building construction

For many construction projects in today’s competitive marketplace, completing on time and
on budget is challenging (Ciccarelli, 2012). Construction projects have a long history of cost
overrun (cost escalation), even in the gigantic projects where hundreds of people are
involved in the planning stage for years (Hussain, 2012). The final products for most
construction projects is never the same as originally planned due to changing and evolving
project scope (Hussain, 2012). In the planning stages of any construction project, owners,
designers and contractors each have a vested interest in defining the full project scope and
developing an accurate budget. However, as the project progresses, scope creep can go
unnoticed, gradually work its way into a project’s scope as expectations evolve and result in
significant negative impacts (Ciccarelli, 2012). Scope creep damage to construction firms fall
into three main areas: increased liability, decreased profitability and damaged reputations
(Lamont, 2013).
Real-world examples of instances of scope creep in construction industry include:
 a contractor who sued a school district over unpaid bills related to changes in the
project;
 a contractor and five of his/her subcontractors who sued a California hospital over a
$24m project that included $16m in overages because of changed orders; and
 JFM  a construction firm that filed suit for additional money over a boat ramp project,
15,4 claiming changed orders including the client’s decisions to move the location of the
ramp twice (Lamont, 2013).

A recent construction industry forum on “The Declining Standard of Documentation in the

Construction Industry”, hosted by Engineers Australia, was presented with evidence of 12
per cent cost overruns across a series of public sector capital projects in Queensland. These
398 cost overruns were related to the impact of scope changes (Carrick, 2004).
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2.4 Consequences of scope creep

The negative impacts of scope creep on construction projects have been reported by several
researchers. One of the major consequences of scope creep is that it can extend the project
schedule. According to Dixon (2006), projects will take longer, not only because of the extra
direct effort to provide additional functionality, but because the project will stall while new
requirements are being defined. Thomas and Napolitan (1995) also observed that scope
changes adversely affect labour productivity (Hanna et al., 1999, 2002a, 2002b; Hanna and
Gunduz, 2004). They posited that scope changes frequently cause significant disruptions to
a construction project, which may decrease the labour productivity of the contractor and
extend the project duration (Hanna et al., 2002a, 2002b; Tse and Love, 2003).
Scope creep can cost up to four times as much as initial development costs. These costs
may include deferred benefits and lowered return on investment (ROI), increased
maintenance costs and additional expected loss (Gurlen, 2003). Oladapo (2007) undertook a
quantitative assessment of the cost and time impact of variation orders on construction
projects in Nigeria and observed that variations had a significant effect on project cost and
time overruns and accounted for about 79 and 68 per cent of the cost and time overruns,
respectively, for the projects studied. As can be expected, if a project takes longer than
anticipated to complete due to scope creep, then it will take longer before the benefits can be
realised, and also additional cost and delayed benefits will result in a lowered ROI. If a
project gets too out of control due to all the changes, it may be cancelled, and if it gets
cancelled, the company will take a loss on what it spent on the effort. A study by Madhuri
et al. (2014) also confirmed the observation that delayed project completion is associated
with scope creep. According to these authors, as scope creep increases, the time required for
completing project increases than estimated.
For Dixon (2006), more time means more cost. If not carefully controlled, all the new
“minor” scope changes can add up to a “major” budget hit. Similarly, Motete et al. (2003) and
Smallwood (2000) both noted that scope creep results not only in material wastage but also
marginalises project quality. Zaneldin (2005) posited that scope changes are the most
frequent cause of claims, which result in cost overruns (Sutrisna et al., 2003). They are also
one of the commonest causes of delays (Odeyinka and Yusif, 1997) and disputes in
construction contracts (Sutrisna et al., 2003; Chan and Suen, 2005).

2.5 How to manage scope creep

Complete prevention of a scope creep is a very difficult, and near impossible task. Most
project managers strive to minimise the amount and extent of scope creep (Gurlen, 2003).
To minimise scope creep, Clark (2014) recommended that a project manager needs to be
vigilant from day one. He should ultimately be able to say yes or no to new requests as soon
as they come in and then stick with it every day until the project is completed. It is also
important according to Clark (2014) to understand the client’s vision even before you get to
project requirements. The priorities of the project manager as well as the project drivers
 need to be understood. An ordered list for review should be made throughout the project Causes of
duration. Items should include budget, deadline, feature delivery, customer satisfaction and scope creep in
employee satisfaction (Doll, 2001). Also, it is important to meet with the project drivers and
deliver an overview of the project as a whole for their review and comments (Doll, 2001).
real estate
Understanding project requirements is another way of minimising scope creep.
Clark (2014) posited that there should be clarity around the goals and objectives of the work
in the initial planning stage. Requirements, according to Turk (2010), must be accurate and
unambiguous as to what the product needs to deliver, and that multiple readers should come
399
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to the same understanding of what each means. The author further suggested that all
requirements must be feasible, attainable, achievable, measurable and verifiable and
expressed in quantified terms that mean the same thing to everyone.
Sarkar (2010) posited that analysis ought to be done to assess the impact for a change
request. According to this author, changes may negatively or positively impact a project and
therefore project managers ought to carefully analyse the change to evaluate whether it is
within or outside the scope of the original requirements. They must also understand how the
requested change may impact the three constraints of the project, namely, scope, schedule
and cost.
Madhuri et al. (2014) investigated the influence of scope creep on project success in
various software industries in Bangalore. The study compared the influence of scope creep
on project modulating factors such as time, cost, personnel and experience level of personnel
by using empirical data that were collected from data repository databases and from
industry personnel in the model of interviews, questionnaires, mails and face-to-face
communication. The results indicated that as scope creep increases, the time and the cost
required for project completion increase.
Hussain (2012) also examined the direct cost of scope creep in government construction
projects in Qatar. He investigated the reasons for scope creep and provided an estimate for
the direct cost resulting from scope in some construction projects. He also suggested ways of
avoiding scope creep in government construction projects. The author showed that there
was an inverse relationship between project final cost and scope creep. The study listed
several causes of scope creep, among them:
 scope definition being done by the wrong people;
 bad management of project changes and absence of scope management and control
systems;
 projects being executed after years of completion of study and scope definition; and
 most managers focusing on major scope changes and ignoring small changes that
could lead to bigger scope creep problems.

The following suggestions were among those made as to how to avoid scope creep in
government construction projects:
 project should not be initiated without a clear written scope statement;
 project scope management should be a must, no matter the size of the project; and
 identify all stakeholders and consult them before defining the project scope and not
underestimating the small changes of scope.

The review of the existing literature showed that scope creep is a common problem that spans
several industries. The causes, effect and mitigation measures for scope creep in industries
such as the construction and software industries have also been identified in several previous
 JFM investigations. However, there is dearth of information on the causes, effects and mitigation
15,4 measures for scope creep in the Real Estate Development Industry, particularly in Ghana.
Thus, the study reported here is timely and the information gleaned from it could help
managers minimise the incidence of scope creep, while staying competitive and satisfying their
customers or clients.

400
3. Methodology
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The following research methodology was used in analysing the perception of causes of
scope creep and its impact on project completion in the Real Estate Development Industry in
Ghana.

3.1 Research design

A quantitative method was employed for this research. The study was fact-finding in nature
which used a survey approach for data gathering to obtain the needed information for the
study.

3.2 Sampling technique and sample size

A total of 145 questionnaires were administered to personnel from selected companies in the
real estate development industry in Accra, which was composed of clients, consultants and
contractors. Of a total of 145 questionnaires sent to the companies under consideration, 100
responded, signifying a response rate of 69 per cent. These experts comprised among others
project managers, project coordinators, project team members and supply chain managers.

3.3 Questionnaire structure

The survey questionnaire consisted of two main sections. The first section dealt with the
demographic or background information of respondents: job position, years in industry and
level of education, among others. The second section asked detailed questions which
required respondents to rate the causes of scope creep, its impact on projects and how it can
be mitigated from a scale of 1-5, with 5 being strongly agree, 4 – agree, 3 – neutral, 2 –
disagree and 1 – strongly disagree. Initial interviews with selected real estate stakeholders
as well as information glean from the literature review led to the identification of the
following listed causes of scope creep:
 unforeseen risk: unaware or unanticipated risk. Unforeseen risks creep up on
unawares, and can consequently cause project scope creep or project failure;
 new law: unavoidable external demands on which no control can be exercised;
 client change: changes made by client;
 new insight: information becoming available or new ideas that was not known at the
start of the project;
 new technologies: technologies that come on the market that can be applied on a
project;
 unclear scope: scope that leaves room for ambiguity; and
 new economic situation: status of the country’s financial position, inflation/price
fluctuation.
 3.4 Data collection procedure Causes of
Questionnaires were hand-delivered (drop-off) and hand-retrieved (pick-up) by the scope creep in
researchers. This data-collection procedure helped to maintain high response rate and
reduced non-coverage error.
real estate

3.5 Reliability and validity of the data

Measures were taken to produce a reliable and valid piece of work in relation to 401
questionnaire design. This is evident from the 0.921 Cronbach’s alpha coefficient obtained
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for reliability. To obtain reliable and valid results, it was ensured that the adopted
methodologies were consistent with the research aims and objectives (Table I).

3.6 Data analysis

Data gathered from the respondents were carefully entered in Microsoft Excel and
thoroughly screened for entry errors before analysis. All analyses were done with the help of
Microsoft Excel and SPSS. Tables and descriptive explanations were used to summarise the
data collected from the field. The mean scores (based on the Likert’s scale) and ranks were
computed for the various causes of scope creep. In addition, the Spearman’s correlation
analysis was performed to investigate the strength of the relationship between the causes
and impacts of scope creep identified in this study. A one-way between-groups analysis of
variance was conducted to explore the impact of the role of professionals practising with
real estate clients, consultants and contractor organisations on the perception of the most
likely cause of scope creep. The respondents were divided into three groups
(Group 1: Clients; Group 2: Contractors; and Group 3: Consultants). A p-value less than 0.05
indicates that the two groups have different opinions on that particular scope creep cause
factor, as utilised by Cohen (1992; cited in Dulaimi et al., 2002), which is the conventional risk
level.
The first section of the demographic information shown in Table II classified respondents
based on the employing parties. Eleven per cent of the respondents were clients, 19 per cent
were consultants and 70 per cent were contractors. All respondents had received formal
education with majority of them being Bachelors (43 per cent) or HND holders (31 per cent).
This is an indication that the respondents had the requisite academic/professional qualification
to provide reliable responses. The respondents showed diverse professional backgrounds
including Project Team Members (37 per cent), Project Manager/Coordinators (17 per cent) and
Supply Chain Managers (7 per cent). However, majority of the respondents (39 per cent) were
Project Engineers. Respondents were very familiar with the technical terms used because of
their involvement in the management of projects at the operational and strategic levels. Most of
the respondent (43 per cent) had also been in the industry for the past 6-10 years, with 22
per cent, 9 per cent and 1 per cent acquiring 11-15, 16-20 and above 20 years of experience in the
industry, respectively. This result is an indication that the respondents have good experience to
provide relevant information. It was also observed that majority (72 per cent) of respondents in
the industry had run more than ten projects in the past 5 years. This was significant enough to
give a conclusive response as to whether scope creep was encountered or not during the
execution of the projects and also to determine its causes and impacts.

Cronbach’s alpha No. of items

Table I.
0.921 29 Reliability statistics
 JFM Section Demographic table Frequency (%)
15,4
1st Profiles of respondents according to employing party
Client 11 11
Consultant 19 19
Contractor 70 70

402 2nd Educational background of respondents

PhD 2 2
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Master’s degree 20 20
Bachelor 43 43
HND 31 31
Others 4 4
3rd Professional background of respondents
Project manager/ 17 17
coordinator
Project team member 37 37
Supply chain manager 7 7
Project Engineer 39 39
4th Working experience of respondents
1-5 25 25
6-10 43 43
11-15 22 22
16-20 9 9
Above 20 1 1
Table II. 5th Projects run by respondents in the past 1-5 years
Demographic Less than 5 1 1
characteristics of Between 5-10 27 27
respondents Greater than 10 72 72

4. Results
4.1 Causes of scope creep
This section examines the perceptions of project parties (namely, clients, contractors and
consultants) on the causes of scope creep in the real estate development industry in Ghana.
Table III lists and ranks the seven identified causes of scope creep from literature. Table III also
ranks the sub-groups’ (contractors’, clients’ and consultants’) perceptions of the causes of these
cause factors. Table AI investigates the level of correlation among the causes of scope creep.

Level of Significane
Full sample Client Consultant Contractor F statatic significane difference
(N = 11) (N = 19) (N = 70)
Cause factors Overall MS MS Rank MS Rank MS Rank ( p value) (Yes or No)

Unforeseen risk 3.73 3.90 2 4.00 2 3.63 2 2.08 0.13 No

New law 3.03 3.20 4 3.32 5 2.94 7 1.54 0.22 No
Client change 4.08 4.18 1 5.00 1 3.97 1 2.93 0.06 No
Table III. New insight 3.36 3.00 6 2.78 7 3.57 3 9.79 0.01 Yes
Respondents Economic situation 3.37 2.82 7 3.63 3 3.39 5 3.86 0.02 Yes
perceptions on New technology 2.97 3.10 5 2.84 6 3.01 6 0.59 0.56 No
causes of scope creep Unclear scope 3.54 3.64 3 3.58 4 3.51 4 0.13 0.88 No
 As can be observed from Table III, the top three causes of scope creep in the Ghanaian real Causes of
estate industry are (1) client change, (2) unforeseen risk and (3) unclear scope. Further, there scope creep in
was a statistically significant difference at the p < 0.05 level in the likelihood of occurrence
scores for two of the seven scope creep cause factors for the three groups (clients, contractors
real estate
and clients) as follows: “New Insight” ( p = 0.01 < 0.05); and “Economic Situation” (p =
0.02 < 0.05).
In the sub-section that follows, we discuss the top three scope creep cause factors as
ranked by the project parties as most likely to occur in a construction project based on the 403
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overall mean score.

4.1.1 Client change. The ranking of “client change” as the most critical cause of scope
creep is consistent with several other findings. Amoatey et al. (2015) ranked variation
orders by client as the 5th most critical cause of delays in construction projects. Client
change causing scope creep is emphasised in literature by Turk (2012). He posited that
too often project managers are intimidated by the client and are afraid to say “no” and
also some managers want to be seen as “the good, can-do” guys who do not want to
antagonise the client. In fact, Edwards (2004) acknowledge that owner-initiated
changes represent a primary cause of scope creep resulting in both time and cost
overruns. In this study, all three of the parties (clients, consultants and contractors)
ranked “Client Change” as the foremost cause of scope creep in construction projects.
This clearly demonstrates the consensus among the respondents about the importance
of changes from clients on project scope creep.
4.1.2 Unforeseen risk. Further, “Unforeseen Risk” was identified as the second
major cause of project scope creep in Ghana. Unforeseen risks are usually not
anticipated and it occurrence can bring changes to the scope of the project. Tummala
and Schoenherr (2011) acknowledged this fact that, with growing global competition
in supply chain delivery, the likelihood of not achieving project goals has increased.
They posited that firms need to understand and identify potential risk factors, their
likelihood, consequences and severities. In risk identification, the project team looks
at all of the items and events within the project from the perspective of the various
risk categories and identify those that could potentially have a significant negative
impact on the project. In this case, the focus would be issues that might affect the
project scope during the entire project life cycle. According to Kerzner (2013), lack of
formal risk analysis and planning process is one of the major causes of scope creep.
4.1.3 Unclear scope. Unclear scope of project was considered the 3rd most important
cause of scope creep in construction projects in Ghana. As a team proceeds through a
project, one may become more knowledgeable about an aspect of the project or with
regards to a potential solution than one previously was, thus prompting a change in
previously defined requirements. As further noted by Kerzner (2013), without a
documented, approved and enforced process that is supported by all project parties,
features may be added without using any coordinated approach. This makes the
scope very difficult to control and therefore lead to scope creep. Finally, unclear scope
was identified by Gurlen (2003) to be one of the major causes of scope creep. She
acknowledged that when a project scope is not originally clearly defined, many
misunderstandings on what is to be accomplished can result, leading the project in
unintended directions and resulting in scope creep.

4.2 Mitigation strategies

This section discusses relevant measures to address the three major causes of scope creep
identified in this study, namely, client change, unforeseen risks and unclear scope.
 JFM 4.2.1 Prescriptions for client change. Earlier studies agreed that the best way to
15,4 mitigate scope creep is to access the impact the change will have on the project before
implementing it. For example, Sakar (2010) found that a change may positively or
negatively impact a project and therefore it should be assessed first before deciding
whether to implement it or not. Again, we propose that the client should be involved in
discussing project details from the project initiation phase. All their requirements and
404 specifications must be taken into consideration. There should be mutual agreement
made between the project team and the client concerning the scope. Client should be
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made aware that any vital changes made later will cause a vital increase of cost and/or
time required to complete the project. This prescription is consistent with Turk (2010),
who emphasised the importance of having the client present the facts and formally
accept any change to the cost and schedule, which usually means adding more funding
to the project, extending the schedule and/or dropping other requirements to
compensate for the change.
4.2.2 Prescriptions for unforeseen risks. Though managing the specifics of unforeseen
risks can be a very challenging endeavour, some generic provision can be made to
accommodate them. One possible pragmatic approach to managing unforeseen risks is for
the client to allocate some level of central contingency fund to be used for addressing these
risks should they occur. This fund would typically be held outside of the project budget, but
within the client’s financial budget.
4.2.3 Prescriptions for unclear scope. It is very critical that projects have clear
requirements at the initiation phase and ensuring that these requirements are followed
strictly. This should start with clarity around the goals and objectives of the project
and the work to be done. The scope statement should specify the boundaries of the
project including all limits and exclusions. This expectation is in line with Turk’s (2010)
suggestion that project requirements should be accurate and unambiguous. To mitigate
the effects of scope creep, Fageha and Aibinu (2016) observed that identifying
stakeholders’ involvement at the project conception phase significantly enhances
completeness of project scope definition in building projects.

5. Limitation of study
This study was limited to causes and impact of scope creep in the real estate
development industry in Ghana based on data collected from only real estate
development companies in Accra. Due to geographic constraints, the researcher was
unable to sample real estate development companies across Ghana. Again the study is
based on self-reported perception of causes and impacts of scope creep by project
parties, i.e. clients, consultants and contractors. Nonetheless, the challenges do not
affect the overall conclusions drawn here and will be useful for practitioners in the
industry.

6. Summary and conclusions

This study investigated the causes and effects of project scope creep in the real estate
development industry in Ghana. An attempt was made to identify pragmatic mitigation
measures for reducing the incidence of scope creep. A questionnaire was designed and
distributed among project parities (clients, consultants and contractors). Majority of
respondents indicated experiencing scope creep often in their projects. The most critical
scope creep causes were client changes, unforeseen risk and unclear scope. The major
effects of scope creep identified were delays in project completion time and increasing
cost of projects. This implies that most projects in the real estate development industry
 in Ghana do not get completed on time and also their estimated costs are increased. As Causes of
observed by other authors, including Newton (2015), differences in perception of what scope creep in
was meant when the client specified the project deliverables can lead to vastly different
understanding of what exactly is required. Not only must the scope be agreed upfront,
real estate
it needs to be constantly monitored throughout the project to avoid it changing in a way
that break the budget or timescale, or will contravene stakeholder expectations of the
final deliverable.
As an important contribution, we have suggested some prescriptions for mitigating the 405
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incidence of scope creep. This study will help project managers in the industry to appreciate
the causes of scope creep and its effect on project completion and cost. Further, project
parties can better understand the dynamics of project management and make efforts to
reduce the incidence of scope creep. The results could help to increase the quality of
economics on real estate management and reduce the costs and risks of housing of delivery
in the country. This paper would also provide a useful reference material for project
managers in the non-real estate development industry who intend to apply these
recommendations in their projects. Further research could also be carried out to investigate
in detail the cost impact of scope creep, in a quantifiable way.

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Appendix

Causes of scope Unforeseen Client New Unclear New economic

creep risk New law change insight New tech scope situation

Unforeseen risk 1.000 0.829 0.803 0.705 0.833 0.786 0.797

New law 0.829 1.000 0.846 0.833 0.827 0.819 0.819
Client change 0.803 0.846 1.000 0.726 0.825 0.815 0.828
New insight 0.705 0.833 0.726 1.000 0.786 0.889 0.844
Table AI. New technologies 0.833 0.827 0.825 0.786 1.000 0.799 0.788
Correlation Unclear scope 0.786 0.819 0.815 0.889 0.799 1.000 0.924
coefficient between New economic 0.797 0.819 0.828 0.844 0.788 0.924 1.000
causes of scope creep situation

Corresponding author
Charles Teye Amoatey can be contacted at: camoatey@gimpa.edu.gh

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