Are you the reason that your startup is now delaying the launch of a product? Was it your ideas or stubbornness that resulted in a project creeping in directions? Well, after doing some self-reflection, are you?

Don’t be the project creep. Because, believe me, if it is happening  then someone is to blame and most likely it is the person asking for new features outside the scope of the initial requirements. Project creep doesn’t just happen. And it can ruin your business.

Now that you know for sure, that you and your ambitions have made you the project creep, let’s fix it so you can deliver.

1. Project Goals

Create a definitive list of goals for the project. These include scope, requirements and ROI. Projects don’t exist in a vacuum and require the work of a team in most instances. If you are working solo then this is even more important so that you don’t have to fire yourself for being a creep. Stick to your finalized documentation.

2. Scope

This is the most important of the three to eliminate creeps of the bipedal and product varieties. Scope encompasses what it is that you are setting out to achieve and the resources at hand to deliver on time. At this stage you need to be as pragmatic as possible and cage that inner dreamer.

That dreamer that got you to this point is no longer useful during this step, it will only increase the scope as you say, “Yes, and . . . Yes, and . . . ” You need to dial it down and take a realistic look at what can be delivered. Once the documentation is complete you need to be satisfied with it. If you are not then it needs to be rewritten, you need to put the project down and let a colleague lead it or simply walk away from it. Because if you don’t, you’ll be a creep for wasting everyone’s time.

3. Requirements

Project reqs are the lifeblood of a product launch. They outline the resources needed and the work that needs to done to attain a product release. These should include people, hardware, software and time estimates (with padding). Again, these should reflect an honest assessment of the work that will be done. You know when you’re being honest – listen to that little voice.

Once this stage of development is reaches it is paramount that it is followed letter by letter until the completion of the project. No more letters should be added. If anything, letters can be trimmed if they mean not adding them back in another pattern. I know you understand.

4. ROI

No doubt you are trying to solve a problem by even taking on this project but without a clear and definitive sense of what the return on investment is you will lose focus. When you lose that focus the project will creep because your requirements will change. If you want a new ROI then it should be another project if the one at hand has already begun.

Conclusion

Everyone is happier and healthier if you are not the project creep. You’ll be happier and healthier if your team members aren’t creeps as well. The moment that you feel the creep coming on tell it to go away. Do that by referencing your plans and sticking with the rational you.

Once the project is complete and released you can give it a review, measure the ROI, plan for the next version and thank yourself for not being creepy or named Pablo Honey.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Are You the Project Creep? is a post from: TechStartups.com

Uh, dinosaurs, silly!

I finally have a reason to blog about my most recent favorite movie, Land of the Lost, as scientists now debate if dinosaurs were ectothermic or endothermic. You know, cold blooded like a froggy in pond or warm blooded like Lassie.

So let’s settle the debate and grow a pair of dinosaurs to find out. This is my new brilliant tech startup idea.

We’ve got to be getting close to having the technology and questionable enough ethics to hook up some cells in a petri and find a viable host. Seriously, to get this rolling I volunteer my body as the vessel to make this old life anew.

Okay, maybe I won’t volunteer. But if there is an acceptable way of bringing dinosaurs back to life to settle the multitude of debates swirling about then it should be done. Debates that consume anthropologists about whether certain dinos were bipedal or down on all fours, if they could fly or were flightless and whether they were the missing link between species could all be put to rest with some synthetic growth hormone.

This newest hypothesis that T-rex was a warm blooded brute is just too much. Especially after watching Land of the Lost last night and witnessing Will Ferrell play a scientist that spewed his knowledge about dinosaurs endlessly to always be proven wrong – early primates for that matter too.

I am teasing the scientists a bit on this because in a quest for definitive answers they build conventional theories that take root in texts and minds. Then one day when more information is gleaned from a long lost specimen and the computational power of the day expands just enough to run an outrageously expensive test a new answer arrives. Whether the T-rex was or wasn’t hot, cold, upright or otherwise means nothing to me as I walk to catch the bus, subway or drink down this last bit of Sprite float that my daughter made me.

The bearing that these creatures had as evolutionary partners on this planet to our species in negligible. What is the answer really going to yield that is useful information for a modern human to use in their lives? I find solving puzzles as interesting as the next person but let’s put this sucker to rest and grow us some dinosaurs if we want to know the answer!

Spark might put of the seed money for awesome dino raising startup. Bijan?

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Grow A Pair And Find Out is a post from: TechStartups.com