11/15/23, 6:32 PM Impact of eLearning Scope Creep: A Project Manager's Guide

Fazilath Ahmed

Article Insight:
The availability of the highest form of technology has made e-learning the most sought-after
method to deliver training online. It's far more effective than traditional training. But as they say,
e-learning doesn’t just happen; it needs vigilant design and implementation. It's always better
to define the scope and goals of your project before you kick off.

The success of most e-learning projects heavily depends on the preparation you do before you
even start crafting the e-learning course. In the initial stages, the big challenge for you is to
scope your e-learning project properly. Scoping a project can be a bit complex, but when you
understand how e-learning project management best practices operate and put them into
practice, it becomes effortless.

Topics Covered:

1. What is the Project Scope?

2. What is Scope Creep in eLearning?

3. Role of the Project Manager in Scope Management

4. Common Causes of eLearning Scope Creep

5. Importance of effective communication with stakeholders

6. Tools that can assist in managing scope changes

7. How To Avoid Scope Creep In eLearning Development

What is the Project Scope in e-Learning?

The term e-learning project scope is used to define all the limitations, duties, roles,
responsibilities, timelines, and deliverables, and it often covers the cost of the project as well.

The Importance of Defining Project Scope:

When you have a proper project scope, it makes sure that you and your stakeholders know
exactly what the project aims are, when it will be done, and, most importantly, what will be
dispatched. It will also cover the cost and the people involved in it. And when you don’t define
your project scope properly, there is always a risk of derailment. This results in several scope
creeps, high-cost delays, and bleak stakeholders. You must align the scope with the
requirements and assumptions of your stakeholders and evade scope creep, which usually
adds more unwanted features that are not important.

By enumerating what is included and what is not in your project, you can avoid risks and
constraints that may affect the project.

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Benefits of setting a clear Project Scope:

Gives you a roadmap:

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11/15/23, 6:32 PM Impact of eLearning Scope Creep: A Project Manager's Guide

This allows the team members to refer to the project scope anytime during the project to align
with the project goals.

Oversees stakeholder expectations:

It's always a big challenge to handle the requests and expectations of your stakeholders, who
may have different objectives, outlooks, and beliefs than you. However, a clear project scope
sets the guidelines to make sure that everyone knows the precise goals and objectives.

Helps in planning:
When you clearly define the timeframe and constraints in the project scope before you start, it
helps you plan things better.

Prevents scope creep:

You must be good at project scope management as it sets the boundaries of your project and
helps to mitigate issues that may switch away the focus of your project from the original plan.

What is Scope Creep in eLearning Projects:

When your project’s content and objectives deviate from the original plan and increase beyond
what was agreed, and that too without meeting the increase in resources or budget, this is
called scope creep. This can happen to any project and destroy it in many ways. This usually
happens when project stakeholders constantly call for changes, add new needs, or struggle to
define the scope of work at the project’s outset properly. Scope creep can trigger increased
costs, setbacks, a decline in quality, and dwindled client satisfaction, making it all-important for
project managers to handle and govern the scope of a proj
ect productively.

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11/15/23, 6:32 PM Impact of eLearning Scope Creep: A Project Manager's Guide

Impact of scope creep on e-learning projects:

The impact of scope creep differs substantially according to the complications and size of the
project and certain conditions surrounding the scope creep. Although there are some aspects
of the project on which scope creep has an impact.

Labor costs shoot up: When the scope of a project becomes larger, further resources may be
needed and this leads to higher labor costs.

Setback: The pace of a project gets slow because of additional scope and takes longer than
planned to finish. The lag caused by scope creep can raise the overhead costs. Expansion of
the project also leads to decreased productivity among team members.

Effects material costs: Changing the project scope means you need extra materials or
equipment, and this triggers additional expenditure. Additional resources and materials
provided for new requirements add to the budget and your cost overruns.

Quality decreases: The quality of the product dwindles drastically because of high pressure to
deliver. The raised scope of a project doesn’t have enough time and resources to focus on
quality and this leads to lower quality outcomes.

Drop in customer satisfaction: When the customers don’t get what they want, they may be
dissatisfied and become annoyed when the project takes longer and costs more than planned
earlier. This can also lead to insecurity among team members.

Cause misunderstandings: Changes in a project plan can lead to misunderstandings and strife
between project stakeholders, and this affects e-learning project success.

Trials in execution and project planning: Planning and execution become difficult because of
changes in the scope of a project. As the changes impact the timeline and budget the cost of
scope creep can be very high if a project is big.

The Role of the Project Manager in Scope

Management:
A project manager must set up a definitive scope of work, review the content as needed, and
update it periodically. And try to be proactive in the beginning and stop scope creep from

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11/15/23, 6:32 PM Impact of eLearning Scope Creep: A Project Manager's Guide

occurring.

Define project scope:

The project managers must define the project scope in the beginning. Without solid objectives
and a well-drafted project scope, scope creep may occur due to regular changes to the
project's deliverables. The project manager can easily handle the e-learning content
development challenges by adding specifics to the project scope.

The project scope must cover specifics like:

Precise project objectives

Deliverables that must be finished

Specified timeline for project completion.

Milepost for every deliverable

The approximate value of the project

The reason for most failing projects is extreme scope creep. They overrun the set budget and
pass over the deadlines because of regular changes in deliverables. The responsibility of a
project manager is to direct the project scope control for e-learning properly and avoid scope
creep.

Common Causes of e-Learning Scope Creep

Belated scrutiny of poor content: It happens sometimes that the client provides the eLearning
development team with content that doesn’t align with training goals. This is a big issue,
particularly if no one observes the matter until the storyboard is in the evaluation process.

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11/15/23, 6:32 PM Impact of eLearning Scope Creep: A Project Manager's Guide

Changes in content: This is obvious, clients usually approve the project content and then
decide to alter it later. This creates problems because the development begins immediately
after the client reviews the storyboard and ratifies the content. When you change the content
during media development it leads to high-cost rework.

Changes in content between media development can impact

things like:

Outline of the course

Storyboard

Animation work

Test questions

Length of the program

Way of delivery and more.

An expanding review lineup: Clients are usually enticed to cast up more people to the review
affair as eLearning development progresses. Most importantly, everybody has good ideas. And
it's not possible to execute these plans and respond to dissent feedback after the storyboard is
ratified.

Clients' setbacks: Due to various reasons clients sometimes pass over their time limit in a
project plan. They may have to balance changing orders and experience setbacks when pulling
content for the developer. This can seriously affect the project timeline.

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11/15/23, 6:32 PM Impact of eLearning Scope Creep: A Project Manager's Guide

Influence of stakeholders: Stakeholders play a very crucial role in eLearning projects. Whenever
they fail to define the scope of work at the beginning of the project appropriately, it can lead to
scope creep. This triggers uncertainty and misconception between the stakeholders and the
project team, causing setbacks, cost push, a drop in quality, and reduced customer
satisfaction. Not only this but modifying the scope of a project also influences budget and time
limits. As a result, planning and executing the project effectively becomes difficult.

Importance of effective communication with

stakeholders:
It's very crucial to have effective communication, as it helps to pin down prospective scope
creeps early on. This way, you can take proactive steps and address them with ease. Besides,
adding all the stakeholders to the communication process encourages a sense of ownership
and responsibility. This helps prevent random alterations to the project scope. You can
establish clear lines of communication by keeping everyone well-informed and having a well-
defined project scope that is regularly reviewed and amended as needed.

Importance of Change Control Process:

The Change control process is practiced for the entire scope of the project. This is a part of
eLearning project management. The process is planned to ensure that project launch (cost,
quality, time, and interests) will not be subject to any modifications without proper agreement.
Not implementing the process accurately will most likely lead the project to end with scope
creep.

Scope Change Request Process:

A formal or informal request from the clients to change the project scope, requirements, or
deliverables is called a change request. A project manager must handle this properly otherwise
it will hurt the project's quality and success.

The change control process is an exercise that helps you handle the change request properly
and makes sure that they are even with the project's goals and benefits. It consists of five steps,
which we refer to as the 5Cs:

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11/15/23, 6:32 PM Impact of eLearning Scope Creep: A Project Manager's Guide

Change Identification:
This involves recognizing and documenting any changes that happen or are requested in the
course of the project.

Change Analysis:
This is all about evaluating the impact, feasibility, and significance of the proposed changes on
the project scope, cost, quality, timeline, and client satisfaction.

Change Approval:
This is related to assessing and approving or denying the change requests by the proper
authority, like the project manager, sponsor, or steering committee.

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11/15/23, 6:32 PM Impact of eLearning Scope Creep: A Project Manager's Guide

Change Implementation:
Change implementation means carrying out the approved changes and reforming the project
plan and documents properly.

Change Evaluation:
Change evaluation is the measuring and assessing process of the result and benefits of the
changes, and seizing the lessons learned.

Best Practices for Evaluating and Approving Scope Changes:

You must stick to your best practices to effectively handle project scope and change requests.
This comprises merging stakeholders and clients in the scope definition and confirmation
process to make sure their needs and expectations are clear and pragmatic.

Furthermore, a thorough project scope statement should be generated and used as a

reference for change analysis and scope control. Besides, a direct and formal change control
process should be fixed and documented in the scope management plan. A change request
form or system should be used and duties and responsibilities for change identification,
analysis, approval, implementation, and evaluation must be assigned to record and trace
change requests.

Asking clients about the change request and explaining to them about the impact of changes
is also important. Finally, you must trace and control the project scope and performance
regularly. You can do this by using the scope baseline and project management plan as the
ground for comparison and deviation analysis. The lessons learned should be fused into future
projects by documenting the evaluated results and benefits of the changes.

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Tools that can assist in managing scope changes:

When you manage an eLearning project, most of your effort goes into keeping the project on
track. Managing project scope in online learning is demanding. Many things can go into pot in
any project. But the most aggravating one is when a client or subject matter expert keeps trying
to alter the project. To manage things like what will be delivered, how many review cycles the
project will comprise, and how the project will be implemented you can use an eLearning
project management tool to keep all of these tasks on track and on time.

To bring more clarity to the course development process and to make it easier for SMEs and
contributors to see the updated version of the course along with each other's feedback,
consider using a tool like Articulate Review. This allows you to put modifications into context in
a fashion that everyone can see. This way, by minimizing back and forth, you can identify latent
issues before they result in project delays.

You need a decision-maker to step in when there is a conflict between SMEs. You must be clear
about who's accountable for what and at what level of involvement to provide you with a clear
way when an issue arises. An accountability matrix can help you in this matter.

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How To Avoid Scope Creep In eLearning

Development:
Scope creep is certainly a project manager’s pet-hate. And there is this one question that
always comes to their mind how to prevent scope creep in e-learning? It can be a subtle issue
that leisurely creeps into your project and causes it to become more demanding, over budget,
and tardy.

But you can escape the net of scope creep easily by following a few simple steps. You should
take these steps before your instructional designer commences working. Three easy and
applicable steps to follow to avoid scope creep. Let's take a look below.

Outline the project thoroughly:

You should know what you are up to. Make a storyboard with all the eLearning project success
factors. Be meticulous about how many quizzes you will make, how often a branching scenario
will occur if you have one, and whether will there be a voiceover. Make sure to define where it
will come from, if not throughout the entire course. When you state everything precisely in a
written format, it will be your companion when you fight the scope creep.

Call on written approval:

After you finish writing all the details, analyze it with your client and ask for his approval. Make
sure that your client acknowledges everything and knows what you will be doing and won’t be
doing. Assuming things will not help you, try to be as clear as possible. Ask for written approval
from your client after he has understood everything. They should know that you will start
working after getting their approval. And importantly, any alterations after that will be regarded
as extra work.

Figure out how many feedback repetitions are in scope:

Usually, two feedback repetitions are too much. The first-time clients go through your work and
mail you a batch of feedback. Then you implement it and send it back, now they get one more
chance to analyze it and see if it is now as they wanted it to be. Now whatever comes after this
is extra work and added cost for the client.

Summing up:
It is important to set up a transparent and well-defined scope of work at the onset of a project.
By regularly reviewing and reforming it when needed, it can help you avoid conflicting results.
Project managers should make sure that everyone is in agreement by constantly
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communicating the project’s goals, objectives, and scope, and that alterations will be made in
a restrained and planned way.

Fathoming what scope creep is, its sources, and how to handle it successfully is an essential
part of a project manager's job. Scope creep can be managed by executing procedures like
clear project definition, clear communication with stakeholders, progress monitoring, and
change tracking and documentation.

These things can help alleviate the adverse impact of scope creep and make sure the project
goes as planned to deliver its intended objectives. When you manage scope creeps properly, it
leads to improved project effectiveness, healthier client satisfaction, and enhanced project end
results.

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