TRIDENT UNIVERSITY INTERNATIONAL
ITM 423: System Acquisition, System Development and Project Management
Module 1: IT Systems Planning and Acquisition Case Assignment
May 2014 Term
May 25, 2014

Assignment: Prepare a 4-6 page paper addressing the following issue:
“Review the Challenges in IT System Planning and Discuss in Detail the Problem of Scope Creep”

Review the Challenges in IT System Planning and Discuss in Detail the Problem of Scope Creep

The overall goal of any project manager is to successfully deliver the project they are overseeing to the customer on time and within the budget that was allotted. This is a lofty goal when you consider that an overwhelming majority of projects do not meet this criteria. To put a figure to that, Claudia Vandermitt in her 2011 article on Managing Scope Creep makes a note to mention that only 32% of all projects were successful in completing on time and on budget. That is quite a shocking percentage, but when you think about how fast IT technology is advancing and creating solutions that encompass the whole enterprise then you can start to get a better picture of the internal and external factors that a project manager needs to plan for to make things not spiral out of control. This is what is going to set the backdrop of this assignment and here I will expand upon and analyze these concepts. For this assignment I’ll start out by discussing the challenges faced in IT systems planning and things the project manager will need to do initially to ensure they have a firm grasp of the project’s scope. Then I’ll introduce the term scope creep and define how this comes about. I’ll finish this discussion by discussing how using some best practices and methodologies, specifically Strategic Systems Planning (SSP), can help mitigate the effects of scope creep to get and keep your project back on track. With that let’s