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Home
Improvement Projects and Scope Creep
I
know I’m not alone in undertaking a home improvement project that morphs into
something much larger than anticipated. A
few years ago, we started with the idea of stripping off the wallpaper (previous
owner – way too flowery) of our master bathroom and painting the walls to
update the look. While we were
brainstorming about paint colors, we thought we’d update the light fixtures and
towel rods also. Once we got started
with this basic project, the wallpaper did not want to come off and tore up the
drywall. Somehow, that led to ripping out
the whirlpool tub (took up too much of the room) and separate glass shower
(leaking issue). We decided on a large
garden tub/shower combo. That meant my
husband needed to build a new wall to accommodate this change. With the new wall built, to get back to the
original project, we finally decided to cover the torn up drywall with bead
board. My teen sons got involved and
thought we should tile above the tub/shower.
They had so much fun tiling on the wall that they convinced my husband
to rip up the carpeting and tile the bathroom floor! Oh, I almost forgot that my husband then decided
“while we were at it” to change the layout of the closet. (Seriously – we’re really not that
crazy.) All of this meant sharing our
sons’ bathroom for the entire school year.
We’re finished now (except for hanging the pictures) and back in our own
bathroom. It does look fabulous, but the
project turned into much more than “hey, let’s remove this ugly wallpaper and
apply a nice shade of paint”.
Looking
back, if we would have applied some principles of project management, this
project would have been more effective and efficient. One suggestion that Dr. Stolovitch offers is
to scope the work – this is where it begins, and this is where it ends
(Laureate Education, n.d.). We had a
loose plan in place, but we did not really take the time to look at the big
picture, nor did we think long term enough.
Portny et al. (2008) also state that the success of a project is “absolutely
dependent on detailed planning”. While I
would call our project a success, because of the scope creep the project
dragged on as each new development caused a project delay (and project stress). Every activity eats up your scarcest resource
– time (Laureate Education, n.d.). All
of those changes ate up a lot of time! We
also spent much more money than the originally budgeted few gallons of paint. The
moneybucket.org website suggests that before starting any home improvement
project, homeowners need to do some research to understand each step from start
to finish. By not brainstorming and
planning out the scope, tasks involved, and all of the steps involved, we ended
up spending much more time, effort, and money on this project.
References
Gerri (2011).
Saving money – or not – with DIY projects. Moneybucket.org. Retrieved from http://www.moneybucket.org/saving-money-or-not-with-diy-projects/
Laureate Education, (n.d.). Creating a project schedule. Retrieved
from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp
Laureate Education, (n.d.). Defining the scope of an ID project.
Retrieved from
Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M.,
Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning,
scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons,
Inc.
