The Effect of Scope Creep on Project Performance: The Case of Federal Road Projects
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Date
2022-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Scope of a project is the total sum of work that is required to deliver service, a product or a result, with the specified characteristics and functions. Scope change in projects is inevitable as projects can often experience dynamic changes. Even though a predefined scope changes at the early stages of a project can keep the scope of a project on track, an uncontrolled scope change, scope creep, is the most common and major cause of project failure. This study aimed to assess the effect of scope creep on the performance of federal road construction projects which hinders the projects from meeting their specific goals within the set of budget and time. The objective of this study was to identify the key variables of causes and effects of scope creep as well as to outline mitigation measures. A combination of descriptive and explanatory research type was followed whereas quantitative surveys approach was used to collect primary data from three parties of the project (the client, contractor, and consultant). A sampling frame was drawn from the target population on the basis of projects that are under implementation phase which reached >50% accomplishment and experiencing scope creep. Using simple random sampling, 20 projects (60sample units) were selected and questionnaires were disseminated. Identified variables gathered from different literatures were employed with a lickert’s scale measurement in order to measure the attitudes of respondents. Data were imported and analyzed using descriptive and inferential analysis in terms of weighted mean, standard deviation and correlations in SPSS. Moreover, secondary data was gathered from the organization in order to strengthen the attitudes of respondents. Results of the study showed that the most common causes of scope creep as gathered from the respondents are poor understanding of scope changes, issues related with design & specifications, issues related with scope planning, issues raised internally, and external issues based on the output of the analysis. On the other hand, the frequent impact of scope creep was shown with regard to time/schedule overrun, overall project performance (such as personnel of projects), with regard to cost overrun, and quality of end result. Possible mitigation measures were also drawn from the study.
Key words: scope creep, project performance, project scope management