Managing Scope Change Throughout Your Project

Introduction: Managing on-the-fly adjustments to e-commerce projects the right way

Making changes in the middle of an e-commerce project can be stressful and daunting.  Where should you start if you want or need to adjust the scope or add a new feature? What are some methods that might help navigate introducing change during a bustling e-commerce project? In this article, we'll briefly discuss some ways to stay on top of changing scope throughout a project the right way. 

I love ice hockey. The game is fast-paced, teamwork is crucial, and split-second decisions are the factors between success and failure. When a play isn't going as planned, or a new opportunity arises unexpectedly, teams and players must make quick, calculated adjustments based on gut feelings, experience, and time constraints. These on-the-fly play calls can lead to either remarkable success or a missed opportunity. In the high-energy world of e-commerce projects, similar dynamic adjustments are often necessary. However, unlike a hockey game that lasts just 60 minutes, e-commerce projects can be more akin to building an entire ice rink with timelines spanning months instead of mere minutes. While many of the same principles used when making intelligent and timely decisions in sports apply, e-commerce projects enjoy the advantage of having more than just milliseconds to plan and implement changes. Collaboration, experience, teamwork, and flexibility are essential in both scenarios. The challenge of changing scope during an e-commerce project lies in keeping those changes organized and minimizing their impact on the overall timeline.

A Structured Playing Field: The Normal Arc of a Binary Anvil E-commerce Project

Many agencies do not emphasize planning and discovery prior to starting e-commerce projects. With relatively little planning at the start, the Agile approach can result in a deluge of changes throughout the project with many features only being fully defined once they are in development. At Binary Anvil, e-commerce projects follow a structured approach, resembling the Waterfall methodology. With a deliberate focus on initial planning and design, the framework for the project is set prior to any development. The discovery phase is then followed by development, thorough testing, and deployment. A timeline is provided to Binary Anvil clients to track progress throughout the life of the project. This allows stakeholders to have a clear picture of what they are getting from the outset and when they will get it. However, even the most meticulously planned projects are bound to encounter scope changes along the way. A feature may need to be tweaked or added. A design may need to be updated or removed. A new business development may change some of the original requirements. The key to success is managing these changes in a way that maintains project momentum and ensures alignment with business goals. Proper documentation, expectation management, and an understanding of the potential impact of changes to the timeline are essential components of this process.

Idea Refinement: The Challenge of Managing “Good Ideas” and Effective Adjustments

Imagine you're two months into a six-month e-commerce project. While browsing through some of your competitors’ sites, you come across a new design concept that inspires you to revamp your Product Detail Page (PDP). You genuinely believe this could greatly enhance user experience and keep shoppers engaged for longer, increasing your conversion rate. While the idea may be undoubtedly attractive, the stakeholders must carefully weigh the potential costs of implementing large changes. Price, timeline, and overall project cohesion should be considered before making a decision to add or remove scope during a project.

For instance, let's consider two scenarios:

Rush to implement a "Good Idea": Assume you decide to implement the PDP design change rapidly. You have faith in your agency and four months should be plenty of time to get everything you're asking for done. The agency building your site provides some constructive feedback on the overall impact of the change to the timeline, highlighting how the design and development time needed for the change may seriously delay the launch of the project. But you assume much of their points are just filibuster and CYA (Cover Your Ass). You just know that this new design will really put that special sparkle on the site, so you try to make some on-the-fly adjustments and remove portions of work from the estimate to ensure the addition doesn't impact the timeline. However, once the development work is underway, complications begin to occur. You and the agency did not have a chance to properly define the scope and estimate the impact of such a large change to core functionality. Developers may find dependencies that need to be resolved that were not included in the agency's estimate, and now the timeline starts to stretch. Rushing to implement a "good idea" without proper planning and consideration of the complexity of your ask has led to a mess. Frustration between partners, uncomfortable discussions with the c-suite, and "band-aid" fixes are now your daily bread. I hope you're thinking "That's not me" while reading this. 

Measured approach for effective adjustment: In contrast, say you decide to implement the change, but first you coordinate with your agency to set up a scoping call specifically to discuss the impact of your request on the project. It may take more time, but you know that changing directions during the execution of the project without proper planning can lead to more consternation than success. During the scoping meeting, you decide to pare down your request, tweaking the PDP change proposal with a few strategic improvements that align with the project's original goal, keeping in mind the impact your proposed change will have on the timeline and the budget. After working with your agency to reach a compromise between your vision and realistic feasibility, you initiate a simplified version of your original request with minimal impact to the timeline. Now that you've taken the necessary time to plan and scope the request, the changes seamlessly integrate with the existing user journey, resulting in increased engagement and conversions. In this example, the additional time and resources invested yield substantial returns without derailing your original goals.

It may not always guarantee shining success, but taking the time to ensure your request is fully scoped and estimated before starting implementation allows both you and the agency to identify possible pitfalls and develop mitigation strategies to address them. If the requested changes pose too severe a risk to the timeline for your project, you may choose to tackle it in a phased approach in order to maintain your project's timeline goal. 

The point in these scenarios is that not every change is worth pursuing and changes worth pursuing are worth pursuing circumspectly. Careful consideration of the potential impact, both positive and negative, on the timeline, cost, and overall goal of your project is crucial before proceeding with adjustments during the course of an e-commerce project. 

Keeping the Play Together: Communication and Documentation

Effective scope changes in e-commerce projects go beyond just the changes themselves; they require a collaborative effort and meticulous documentation to ensure success. Open communication and a teamwork-oriented mentality is critical for making effective on-the-fly adjustments, whether you're on the ice or discussing project changes over a virtual meeting. When the pressure is on, remember that you don't have to make millisecond decisions in an e-commerce venture. Even if your project has a tight timeline, proper planning prior to starting work will pay dividends as the project develops. Here are three key areas to focus on to maximize success when introducing changes during a project:

1. Understanding and Alignment: When a change is proposed by either the agency or the client, it's essential to hold a meeting to discuss the scope of the changes. Both parties should work together to fully comprehend the nature of the proposed adjustments. It is easy to become defensive during discussions where costs begin to fluctuate, but creating a rock-solid foundation of understanding prior to estimating and development is critical to building trust, feasible approaches, and accurate estimates. Your agency should work together with you as a team on this. Don't skimp here.
2. Fine-Tuning the Change: Once the request is shaped and fully understood by all parties involved, fine-tuning is critical. This involves refining the proposed changes to minimize disruption, mitigate potential pitfalls, and ensure alignment with project goals. Clear user stories and acceptance criteria must be established to successfully guide the implementation. Not only will this reduce friction, but you also know exactly what you're going to have once the change has been made. 
3. Documentation: To protect the interests of both parties and maintain a clear picture of the change, thorough documentation is essential. Proper documentation should encompass any delays, costs, and other potential effects the change might incur. Binary Anvil primarily uses No Charge Change Orders (NCCO) and Change Orders to document any changes during the project. The purpose of the No Charge Change Order is to alleviate friction cause by unavoidable changes to scope throughout the project. An extension that is out of scope may need to be installed to make another feature work correctly, features may need to be tweaked, or some requirements may be missed during the discovery phase. The NCCO accounts for a preset amount of hours defined in the project's Statement of Work (SOW) that allows both the agency and the client to keep track of changes, and their impact on the timeline of the project. Once the allotted hours in the NCCO are exhausted, any further changes are added to a separate Change Order and are billable to the client. Regardless of how long a project takes, or how many changes were introduced, each addition to (or removal of) scope can be quickly referenced if needed. By codifying these details, you create a comprehensive record that helps mitigate confusion and disputes down the line. Spending reasonable time on documentation can help keep everyone involved in the project informed and helps individuals take ownership.

In conclusion, the dynamic nature of e-commerce projects often necessitates on-the-fly adjustments. Successfully managing project scope changes requires a measured approach to embracing "good ideas" and refining them into effective adjustments that align with project goals. Teamwork is key. Effective communication, precise documentation, and a mutual understanding of the change's implications are crucial to navigate these adjustments and enhance, rather than harm, your e-commerce project's success.