{"id":4245,"date":"2023-03-15T13:52:33","date_gmt":"2023-03-15T13:52:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resourceguruapp.com\/blog\/?p=4245"},"modified":"2025-01-14T09:59:40","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T09:59:40","slug":"effort-vs-scope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resourceguruapp.com\/blog\/project-management\/effort-vs-scope","title":{"rendered":"Beware the big idea: Effort vs. scope\u2014A story by Brett Harned"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, author Elizabeth Harrin shared her story about the importance of visibility<\/a> and workload planning<\/a>. This week, Digital PM Summit founder, podcaster, and consultant, Brett Harned talks about effort vs scope, and why it’s crucial to get input from the right person.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can read all the stories in our latest eBook, Confessions of a Project Manager. Download your free copy here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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I was working with a team to redesign a Fortune 500 company\u2019s website. As a creative team, it was always our job to sort out business and user goals in order to propose ideas that would satisfy both. In this instance, we did just that\u2014we did it with our clients during an interactive workshop.<\/span><\/p>\n

The energy was high, and the ideas were flowing. Nothing discussed in the workshop was positioned to be \u201cset in stone,\u201d so discussing blue sky ideas was fine for me as the PM, even if I was worried about the project scope<\/a>. As a project manager, I\u2019d never get in the way of a good idea. But I\u2019d definitely be sure that it was executable within our scope and timeline. Or, at least I\u2019d try.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ideas we came up with were the kind of design solutions that would change the way this company\u2014and eventually the industry\u2014presented its product.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fast forward a week, and I\u2019m with my team in a conference room discussing final solutions to present. The \u201cbig idea\u201d was front and center, and it was exciting. We discussed how the feature would work, how it might be designed, and how we\u2019d approach it. The problem was, one of our developers\u2014the one who would eventually build the front end of the site\u2014was out of the office for two weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n

I questioned the effort vs. the scope.<\/strong> I took the word of the team, who said it was doable. They were wrong<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

When that developer returned to the office, she looked at the designs and said, \u201cThis is really cool. Did the client approve additional scope?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

My heart sank to my stomach. \u201cNo, we discussed the approach while you were away, and the team said we\u2019d be okay.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That did not make her happy\u2014at all. And I couldn\u2019t blame her for that. I\u2019ve seen plenty of website design projects fail when they hit the development stage, simply because the details hadn\u2019t been discussed. But I\u2019d already learned that lesson and I got ahead of it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Or at least I thought I did.<\/span><\/p>\n

So I asked her to help me to estimate the effort. We sat down and it was more than double what we had scoped. I had to address it with the client before we went any further.<\/span><\/p>\n

I prepared myself for the call, and I was ready to give my client three options:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. They pay for the additional scope<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. We revise the design and table the big new idea<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. We work with the client\u2019s talented development team to split the scope<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I felt pretty good about these options and I was ready to present them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    I called the client, shared the news, and apologized. He yelled at me. Actual yelling! I did my best to calm him down, and shared my solutions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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    In this article \ud83d\udcd6<\/p>\n<\/span><\/div>\n