What is Scope Creep?
Scope creep is the uncontrolled growth of project scope — additions that bypass change control, arriving one "small favor" at a time, unestimated and unfunded. It's the most common silent killer of budgets and schedules.
The antidote isn't refusing change; projects legitimately evolve. It's governed change: every addition goes through impact assessment and formal approval, so scope grows on purpose instead of by accident.
Worked example
A stakeholder asks a developer to "just add one small report." It ships. Next month, three more "small" asks arrive. Nothing was estimated, approved, or funded — six weeks later the project is late and nobody can say exactly why. That\'s scope creep.