scope of expansion in business
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When you first begin a new project for increased productivity in your business or organization, you want to be careful of “scope creep” — which is what happens when seemingly small additional results or requirements slowly get added to your original project, ultimately creating a bloated, too-large project that’s difficult to execute.
After you’ve wrapped up a project for a new, efficient business strategy, however, knowing when (and where) to gradually expand your scope can help ensure that the goodwill and momentum you’ve built up will live on in a greater way.
START WITH A NARROW SCOPE
Naturally, you’d like to operate in a world where everything is possible — that is, where you can do anything necessary to achieve your desired results. Your clients and your organization, on the other hand, would like to believe that you can achieve everything they want with minimal or no cost to them. Of course, neither situation is true.
Defining the constraints you must work within introduces reality into your plans, and helps clarify expectations. As you plan and implement your project, think in terms of the following two types of constraints:
Limitations: Restrictions other people place on the results you have to achieve, the time frames you have to meet, the resources you can use, and the way you can approach your tasks.
Needs: Requirements you stipulate must be met so you can achieve project success.
Unlimited resources can actually be more of a hindrance than a help. Having finite funds, time, and other resources forces you to make decisions and forge ahead.
Even if you had unlimited resources, you should still start your projects with small scopes. You can almost always expand later, but it’s hard to view scaling back a project as anything but a failure even if the resulting smaller scope is a success.
So, when you’re tempted to start off by saving the company $1 million, tackle the first $100,000 instead. Rather than making your first customer-facing event a giant conference with a major headlining musical act, try a casual pizza presentation followed by Q&A. Before switching the warehouse to operate off GPS codes, try to get sales to quit printing purchase orders, and so on.
After you’ve wrapped up a project for a new, efficient business strategy, however, knowing when (and where) to gradually expand your scope can help ensure that the goodwill and momentum you’ve built up will live on in a greater way.
START WITH A NARROW SCOPE
Naturally, you’d like to operate in a world where everything is possible — that is, where you can do anything necessary to achieve your desired results. Your clients and your organization, on the other hand, would like to believe that you can achieve everything they want with minimal or no cost to them. Of course, neither situation is true.
Defining the constraints you must work within introduces reality into your plans, and helps clarify expectations. As you plan and implement your project, think in terms of the following two types of constraints:
Limitations: Restrictions other people place on the results you have to achieve, the time frames you have to meet, the resources you can use, and the way you can approach your tasks.
Needs: Requirements you stipulate must be met so you can achieve project success.
Unlimited resources can actually be more of a hindrance than a help. Having finite funds, time, and other resources forces you to make decisions and forge ahead.
Even if you had unlimited resources, you should still start your projects with small scopes. You can almost always expand later, but it’s hard to view scaling back a project as anything but a failure even if the resulting smaller scope is a success.
So, when you’re tempted to start off by saving the company $1 million, tackle the first $100,000 instead. Rather than making your first customer-facing event a giant conference with a major headlining musical act, try a casual pizza presentation followed by Q&A. Before switching the warehouse to operate off GPS codes, try to get sales to quit printing purchase orders, and so on.
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