Projects rarely explode; they slowly drown in unspoken scope.
If you work in Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL), you’ve probably lived this: a project that didn’t crash spectacularly… it just quietly slipped, stretched and shape‑shifted until no one was quite sure what “done” meant anymore.
It wasn’t bad intent. It was scope. Not big, dramatic scope changes, just “one more indicator,” “a quick extra dashboard,” “only a short learning brief,” “let’s add two more countries to the sample.” Each request is reasonable. Each one is “small.” And almost none of them are properly costed, scheduled, or documented.
Individually, they feel harmless. Together, they sink your project.
How Scope Creeps in MEL Work
In MEL, scope creep often hides behind our desire to be helpful and responsive and every “yes” without an explicit trade‑off creates tiny delays that weren’t in the original workplan, tiny costs that weren’t in the original budget and tiny expectations that were never explicitly agreed.
Over months, the cumulative effect is huge:
- Your team is overloaded
- Your quality drops
- Your timelines slip
- Your client is confused about why “this took so long” and “cost so much
No one remembers the dozen “small” asks. but you are living them.
The Real Skill: Saying “Yes, But…”
The solution is not becoming the consultant who always says “no.” The real professional skill is learning to say “yes, but…”
- “Yes, we can add that indicator, **but** we’ll need to reduce depth elsewhere or extend the timeline.”
- “Yes, we can run that additional workshop, **but** it will require a budget amendment.”
- “Yes, we can produce that learning brief, **but** we’ll need to drop the slide deck or increase the level of effort.”
You’re not refusing value. You’re making trade‑offs visible. When you do this consistently, scope stays honest, accountability stays shared, stakeholders understand that every new “small” thing displaces something else and that’s not being difficult. That’s being transparent.
Why MEL Is Especially Vulnerable
MEL projects are uniquely exposed to scope creep because:
1. Learning never really ends: As insights emerge, people naturally want to explore more. Without boundaries, every interesting question becomes a new task.
2. Deliverables are often intangible: Frameworks, theories of change, dashboards, learning processes are easy to “add onto” because they’re not as visibly constrained as, say, building a road.
3. Stakeholders are diverse: Programme teams, donors, partners, communities have slightly different information needs. “Just add this for us” multiplies fast.
4. We’re wired to be useful: MEL professionals often feel pressure to demonstrate value, which can translate into “never saying no.”
Without clear scope discipline, MEL teams end up doing more and more work for the same budget and timeline, all while being told to “keep it light‑touch.”
Making Scope Explicit: From Saboteurs to Allies
When scope is explicit, stakeholders stop being accidental saboteurs and start becoming allies. Practically, that means:
Define scope clearly at the start: Spell out:
- What is *in* scope (indicators, methods, deliverables, countries, stakeholders)
- What is explicitly *out* of scope
- Assumptions (e.g., data access, staff availability, decision timelines)
Agree a simple change process: It doesn’t need to be bureaucratic: document the request, clarify the impact on time, cost, and quality and get written confirmation of the trade‑off
Use visual tools: Roadmaps, deliverable tables, and RACI matrices help everyone see:
- What was agreed
- What has been added
- What has moved as a result
When everyone can *see* the consequences, conversations shift from: “Can you just add this?” to “If we add this, what should we deprioritise?”. You’re no longer fighting fires; you’re negotiating priorities. The project may still be complex—but at least everyone is drowning in the same pool, on purpose.
How We Help:
Consulting & Training on MEL Project Management
At Evidence, Analytics and Insights, we don’t just talk about scope; we help you manage it.
- MEL Consulting Support: We work with organisations to design MEL frameworks with realistic, bounded scope and build MEL workplans and budgets that reflect actual effort. We facilitate scoping and rescoping conversations between programmes, MEL teams, and donors and when needed, rescue MEL projects that are already drowning in unspoken scope
- Training Courses: Turning “Yes, But…” Into a Habit. Through our learning platform - The Learning Hub; we offer practical training on MEL Project Management with modules to build scope discipline into your MEL practice, including:
- What goes into a MEL Project?
- Scoping MEL Projects for Success: How to define what’s in/out of scope, set realistic expectations, and avoid overload.
- Managing Scope Creep in MEL: Scripts, tools and templates for saying “yes, but…”, handling change requests, and keeping stakeholders aligned.
- Communicating MEL Trade‑offs to Non‑MEL Colleagues - turning technical constraints into clear, compelling explanations for programme teams and donors.
Courses can be delivered online or in‑person and tailored to your organisation’s context.
If your MEL team feels stretched, if your projects keep expanding without extra time or budget, or if you’re always “almost finished” but never quite done, you don’t have a performance problem, you have a scope problem.