When Scope Creep Brings Friends (Vol. 1, Issue 4)
- D.B Trench
- Dec 29, 2025
- 3 min read
Excerpt
Scope Creep never travels alone. It brings Expectations Drift, Unspoken Assumptions, and “just one more thing.” Here’s this week’s field report on the soft disasters that quietly erase your timeline.
Full Issue
There’s a specific sound every PM learns to fear.
It’s not shouting. It’s not arguing. It’s not even the word “pivot.”
It’s the quiet, innocent voice of a stakeholder asking:
“…what if we also added this?”
Somewhere in Deliveria, that’s the mating call of Scope Creep — and trust me, the creature always brings friends.
Welcome back to The PMTales Dispatch, where we study the things that unravel projects while everyone else thinks the plan is fine.
This Week’s Tale From the Field
A few years ago, I worked on a project where the sponsor said:
“The requirements are final. No more changes.”— The same sponsor, 48 hours later:“ Actually… can we rethink the user journey?”
I swear I saw Expectations Drift float into the room like a lazy balloon, bumping into walls and knocking over timelines.
This is how it always happens:
The plan is “locked.”
The team is “aligned.”
Leadership is “committed.”
The scope is “stable.”
And then?
Someone whispers a tiny idea into the void and the creatures wake up.
Survival Lesson #4: Scope Creep Is Rarely the Real Problem
Scope Creep gets blamed for everything, but the real villains are its sidekicks:
Expectations Drift
Stakeholders quietly update reality in their heads, but never share it.
Silent Re-Prioritization
Someone above you changes what “good” looks like without checking alignment.
The Shifting Why
The original purpose blurs… replaced by new motivations nobody acknowledges.
Comfort-Based Decision Making
People choose what feels easier today, not what prevents disaster tomorrow.
Fantasy Timelines
Updates made in rooms with no engineers present.
By the time Scope Creep appears, the damage is already underway.
Your Best Defense: The 3-Question Reset
When expectations begin to drift, pause the meeting and ask:
1. “Is this a new requirement or a clarification?”
Most chaos comes from stakeholders pretending a change was “always part of the plan.”
2. “What outcome are we really optimizing for?”
This exposes hidden motives:
optics
speed
budget
career protection
executive pressure
3. “Do we want to trade something for this?”
The one question that collapses 80% of Scope Creep.
If they say “No trade-offs,” you reply:
“Then this is a future phase. Let’s capture it on the Parking Lot sheet.”
Parking Lot = guilt-free boundary.
A PMTales Field Insight
If a stakeholder says:
“It’s small.”
Remember: The size of the request is irrelevant. The size of the impact is what matters.
A “small” shift in scope creates:
new dependencies
new test cases
new design conversations
new documentation
new risks
new expectations
new emotional overhead
Small changes are never small for the PM.
From the PMTales Armory
If Scope Creep and Expectations Drift are circling your project this week, grab:
Scope Creep Creature Card - Use it to name the issue without sounding accusatory.
Expectations Drift Creature Card - Great for alignment conversations that need honesty and humor.
Requirements Field Guide - Scripts for getting clarity before commitments.
PM Survival Summary Sheets - Turn ambiguity into structured conversations.
Field Note of the Week
Here’s a truth every PM eventually learns:
Scope doesn’t creep — people do. And your job isn’t to fight the people. It’s to fight the silence around what’s changing.
Naming the shift is often enough to stop the slide.
What to Explore Next
Until Next Week
If your project feels like it’s expanding every time someone breathes…you’re not imagining it. You’re just seeing what others prefer not to name.
See you in the trenches,
D.B. Trench
PM, storyteller, defender of timelines no one else remembers exist
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