Even the best outcomes of gold plating can ultimately lead to negative realities for a project manager or for the project as a whole. In a best-case scenario, the customer accepts the project deliverable with the out-of-scope work, and customer expectations on future projects may forever be elevated to unrealistic levels. In a worst-case scenario, the customer might reject the project deliverable entirely and nullify the contract.

What’s the difference between Gold Plating and Scope Creep?

The simple difference between the two comes from who requested it. If the client requested additional functionality but it was not paid for, it comes under “scope creep”, whilst if the person takes it upon themselves to add in additional functionality without checking first, this would be gold plating?

Why is gold plating a problem?

If the client or end user is getting a better product, why should gold plating matter? The main factor behind this is that the client didn’t ask for these improvements or they may perhaps not even want them/not want to move in that direction.

How to avoid gold plating in your projects?

At TIGO, our PMO office would always recommend ensuring that everyone understands the tasks that they are due to deliver, what needs to happen, what is needing to be delivered and then understands the boundaries of the tasks that they are performing. Project Managers explain all of this during the backlog /planning meetings so that everyone knows what is expected. During on-the-job training, our junior PM is guided through showing the consequences of gold plating (which can be rework/ hours not being approved) and am very strict on not only scope control but also monitoring the deliverables against the scope definition.

Conclusion

Gold plating is considered a bad project management practice for different project management best practices and methodologies such as Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) and PRINCE2.

Being a Project Manager is not always easy, and yes, you may be seen as the strict holder of the scope definition bit both gold plating and scope creep are not good for you, your project or your organization.