how changes in duration and scope can directly impact project cost
November 20, 2009
Scope changes in a project can happen for different reasons for example a change in business requirements can necessitate a change in project scope especially if those business requirements affect the project e.g. tax code changes, technical issues, external business influences etc.
Changes in project duration brings corresponding changes in resource expenditure in that if a the project manager decides to implement project techniques like crashing which normally reduces project duration but increases project costs because the project manager will have to have additional staff, work overtime or have additional shifts so as to reduce the project duration using crashing technique.
Changes in project scope might affect the work that has already been done by the project team and it might necessitate a rework according to the scope changes and thus increase the cost of the project since the team will be redoing some project work.
Scope changes can also affect the cost of the project since having additional objectives or requirements might mean that the additional work and thus additional cost to the project. If the scope changes lead to a reduction in project objectives then it might mean a reduction in cost since less work will be done.
Changes in project scope can also cause conflicting project requirements causing additional time to be spent trying to sort out these conflicting requirements thus causing additional project costs and project duration slippage
To prevent scope creep, the project manager and the project stakeholders need to put in place a change control system. This system should be used to review all the scope changes requests and identify the impact of these changes to the project’s budget, schedule and performance. According to Mantel (2005) change control systems should also identify and evaluate alternative solutions that might accomplish the same objectives other than the requested project changes.
Critical chain method is a system that can be put in place to prevent duration slippage by creating additional duration buffers that can be used by the project manager if an activity is behind schedule. According to Kerzner (2006) the system identifies the critical chain and uses it as a leverage point for reducing project duration.
Bibliography
Samuel J, Meredith J, Shafer S Suttton M (2005) Project management in Practice. John Wiley and Sons
Kerzner, Harold (2006). Project management a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling,
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