More thoughts on Project Management

Scope creep. Working on the web-gift for MS and working on the timeline (still working on that one) - I begin to realize that one of my own project management issues is scope creep. I start out w/ a good idea but then I just keep adding to it, and often I don't know when to stop adding. I honestly believe that all the things I add are important, so it is difficult to be tough and leave some out, but this causes the project to take longer and longer to finish. I need to observe myself objectively at work (professional environment) and figure out if I'm doing that there as well. It is difficult because I'm not the only critical player in any of the projects I work on, so neither the scope nor the specifics are completely in my control... but I am still responsible for my part. Am I adding unnecessary steps? If so, how do I change this? How do I maintain a more narrow focus? And - how do I recognize when it really is appropriate to expand the focus? Will managing scope creep really result in projects getting done faster and/or better or will it result in more (but smaller) projects? Do other members of the team face these same issues? How do they approach them? One of the big questions lately is, "How can we express a clearer message about realistic timelines for all our projects?" Could looking at scope creep (and other project management challenges) help with this? My assumption is that it can... but how?

I think I need to start finding some references specific to project management AND instructional design/development of online learning. And then, some documentation on ARP and project management. eLearning guild can provide me w/ some documentation for the first part... guess it's time to start visitng the library. :) but not tonight.