Scope Creep

Looking back at why I still don’t have a paper out about my SPECT research, the answer is scope creep. Scope creep is when a project’s objectives get bigger and push into areas not origionally intended. Sometimes this is a good thing: new features to satisfy new customers.

In my case, it was a lack of focus. I needed to get the simulations working for me if for no one else. In attempting to get all the detail work done up front (in addition to a recurring need to rewrite large chunks of the code as I became better at writing code) it has delayed the project for a solid year: long enough for me to now be at a point in my life where two things are true:

1) I can make progress quickly because I know what I’m doing well enough to get good results quickly

2) I have a day job not related to the project.

Let’s just say I’m a little more aware of scope creep than I used to be.