Scope creep describes how a project's requirements tend to grow over time, such as when a single deliverable product gets split into five or when a product with THREE essential features needs ten essential features or when the customer's needs change midway through a project, prompting a REASSESSMENT of the project requirements. Scope creep is frequently caused by changes in project requirements from key stakeholders, as well as internal miscommunication and conflicts.

Controlling scope creep through a change control procedure is the key to managing scope creep. This entails:

• Keeping track of the project's PROGRESS and establishing a baseline scope
• Using variance analysis to compare actual work performance metrics to the baseline scope, i.e., "How different is the present project from the initial plan?"
• Identifying the source and SEVERITY of the observed changes
• Choosing whether corrective or preventive action is required in response to change requests
• Using the Perform Integrated Change Control procedure, MANAGE all change requests and recommended actions (whether corrective or preventive).