How to Manage Scope Creep

Scope Creep Survival Toolkit: How to Control Project Changes Without Becoming “the Difficult PM’”, the session will focus on practical approaches around leadership, governance, and balancing partnership with control. This won't be a change control process lecture.
We will go through five survival skills: spotting “scope creep in disguise”; replacing reflexive “no” with “yes, and here’s the impact/trade-off”; setting decision rights and tolerances before conflict occurs; having difficult stakeholder conversations while preserving trust; and escalating without appearing obstructive supported by simple techniques such as “What are we stopping to make room for this?”, consequence based change conversations, and documented decisions. This fits existing governance guidance particularly well: consult affected stakeholders before proposing change, establish clear escalation thresholds and decision rights, and keep governance simple.
We will be keeping this session away from the current AI fatigue and focusing instead on practical human and soft skills, particularly where tools cannot replace the human side of leading projects.