Breadth vs. Depth

In my days spent implementing enterprise systems, I often came across scope creep. Simply stated, a client would sign a contract for A, B, and C and then expect X, Y, and Z to be thrown in as well. To be sure, I met more than my fair share of unreasonable people, but sometimes scope creep stemmed from poorly set expectations. The consulting firm or software vendor wouldn't write a contract or communicate particularly well throughout the project. As I wrote in Why New Systems Fail, this usually led to bad things.

And scope creep can rear its ugly head in at conferences. For instance, in prepping for a panel a few years ago, the conference organizer expressed her desire that the one-hour, five-person panel would cover all of the following topics: Big Data, open-source software, social media, cloud computing, and, if we have time, open standards. Sure, and why don't we touch on global warming and world peace while we're at it? Fortunately, I convinced the woman to select just one of those meaty topics. It was better for all concerned to go deep on one rather than superficially checking the box on all of them.