The following situation is a dramatization… (or is it?).

You have just begun a new LIMS project, and everything appears to be going smoothly.

As the project continues to move forward, the stakeholders keep adding extra features. You feel that you are losing control of the project budget and timelines and that the project has taken on a life of its own. You wonder,

“Don’t they realize that these changes are out of scope from the original requirements? Do they think that all these additions and changes are no big deal?”

All you can think about is “We are over the project budget and our deadline is toast. No one is thinking about how these changes affect the overall implementation ”You feel trapped in a vicious cycle of change orders, and there’s no clear end in sight.

If you had a feeling of déjà vu while reading this dramatization ,and you realize it is not exactly fiction… you’ve experienced Scope Creep!

Now What …?

So, what exactly is scope creep? Scope creep (also sometimes known as “requirements creep” or “feature creep”) is the expansion of a project outside of the planned objectives. In other words, the project’s requirements increase over the project lifecycle, which can lead to additional costs and delays. 

Even though nearly every LIMS project will experience it (because it is almost impossible to predict the unexpected…), there are ways to prevent or at least minimize scope creep. Being able to recognize its origins is the first step.

Here are some guidelines that will help prevent scope creep from Day 1 of your project, or minimize it if you are already knee-deep in activities:

Establish the Goals

Before the LIMS project kicks off, take control of the scope by meeting with the key stakeholders to understand their goals. What do they want the completed system to do for them?

Ensure from those meetings that the project team has a clear vision of what the LIMS project is to accomplish and the most efficient way to achieve it.

Clearly Define Your Objectives

After understanding the project goals, you should be able to translate them into objectives and start to plan out the project framework.

·      The objectives should be as detailed as possible. This is especially important for multi-site implementations or projects with high numbers of users.

·      The objectives will be the starting point of your requirements definition.

Develop Requirements and Gain Approval

It is essential to develop and document all your LIMS requirements thoroughly.

·      Involve all the groups, organizations, and lab personnel in the process to ensure that all the needs are captured.

·      Requirements should reflect not only the expressed needs, but also the working procedures, processes, and/or workflow requisites or constraints.

·      Requirements should be described to the smallest level of detail possible. This safeguards the process by:

o  Avoiding different interpretations of a requirement

o  Making sure everyone is on the same page

o  Minimizing surprises by trapping missed elements or prerequisites that arise from other requirements, and

o  Providing a better global vision of the work involved.

·      Once your requirements have been drafted, they should be circulated to the key stakeholders for comments.

·      It can be helpful to gather all the key stakeholders in a room once comments have been received and incorporated.

o  This will ensure everyone agrees and limits the number of times the document will need to be routed for approval.

o  This is also a great time to set some priorities.

Create a Timeline

Group your requirements into major milestones/phases/sprints with target end dates.

·      It can be difficult to determine the task durations if the availability of resources for the project is unknown, so leave room for flexibility.

·      It is also critical that the Project Manager has specific LIMS implementation experience so that the timelines will be more accurate.

o  If this skill set is not available in-house, engaging with a third-party consultant with LIMS expertise and experience is highly recommended. Adding this cost up front will save you money in the long run.

·      The project timeline and task schedule should be documented and approved by the project leaders and key stakeholders.

Assign the Proper Resources

Once the timeline has been set, you need to staff the project with the appropriate resources.

·      You will need to get buy-in from the project leaders that the staff provided will be able to devote the necessary amount of time to the project.

o  Ideally, staff will be fully dedicated to the project

·      Gaps in skillsets can be filled by engaging internal Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), hiring the needed expertise from outside your organization, or engaging third-party SMEs.

Plan to Manage the Change Control Process

Implement a plan and a process for handling the change orders that will come up during the project.

·      Ensure all the key players and team members are educated on the change order process.

·      Having a solid process will allow you to perform a cost–benefit analysis before scheduling any changes requested by your project leaders and stakeholders.

User Acceptance

An often-overlooked way to minimize scope creep is to build a training strategy.

·      Educating users in advance of the deployment about the changes to workflows and processes that the project will require can prevent them from asking for additional changes.

·      Training people before deployment introduces them to the new system. Familiarization with new things helps to tame reservations.

·      Once the project is completed and delivered, user acceptance will be part of determining the success of your project.

Scope creep can be overwhelming and detrimental to the success of a LIMS project. If you follow the guidelines outlined above (even just a few of them), you can avoid, or at least minimize, scope creep and maintain control of your LIMS project. The skilled informatics project manager sat CSols can help your organization navigate your next implementation or upgrade without fearing the creep.

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How have you dealt with scope creep in the past?

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