Scope Creep

Thursday, December 9, 2010Blog Assignment: Analyzing Scope Creep
Blog Assignment - Analyzing Scope Creep

Working in a school that did not make Annual Yearly Progress (AYP), has shown me how the scope of the teachers’ job could increase rapidly. This particular school had made the APY at the end of that first year I was working there. However, in order for the school to be taken off the list of not meeting the standards academically, the school had to achieve the AYP two years in a row. During this time, teachers underwent intense pressure to meet the various intervention strategies that were being implemented by both the Regional Office and the School District. Teachers were forced to deviate from the ongoing curriculum so as to use the various methods that were being given to improve the AYP situation.

On many instances, the teachers felt that it was the Principal who wanted these changes. Many of them had years of experience teaching the curriculum but now these new methods were being introduced radically so that the school could achieve their goals and learners could learn. Many of the new strategies were coming from Instructional Designers who the School District was hiring to make these changes.

Because the Principal was new, even though she had years of experience doing on the job teaching, she too was taken by surprise by these new methods of teaching which were being forced on her and also the teachers. She was betwixt and between the two forces. Teachers thought she should have been the one to intervene on their behalf and the School District and the Region wanted her to play a better part to help teachers use these invention strategies. These strategies were being changed at a rapid pace and even the Principal who had other jobs to do could hardly keep up with them. It is my belief that she did try to alleviate the scope creep, that is the tendency of those above to try to improve a situation even as the situation is in progress. (Portny, S., Mantel S., Meredith, J., Shafer, S. Sutton, M. & Kramer, B. 2007), but these directives were coming from above so had to be adhered to. In addition, the principal was new and had her own challenges to overcome.

Because of my position, I was not in the real heat of things, but I did try to do my part so that the Principal did not have my job to worry about also.

The good thing about this is that it ended up well for the school. The school did achieve the AYP the following year. They would not have to continue using the various intervention methods, but would be able to use the normal curriculum in the District.

What I have learned is that even though there might be scope creep, changes in scope might not always be a bad thing, it can be beneficial and should be handled in a business-like manner go to http://michaelgreer.biz/?page_id=636.

References

http://michaelgreer.biz/?page_id=636.

Portny, S., Mantel, S., Meredith, J., Shafer, S., & Sutton, M. (2009). Project Management: Planning, Scheduling and Controlling Projects. John Wiley and Sons. USA.