I worked on a project a while back that never quite solidified into a clear design plan or development goals. This was my first real experience with “feature creep,” or the tendency of a project to increase in scope and requirements beyond those originally foreseen. In this case, we were making changes to the project requirements up to the day before the product was released. Feature creep delayed the release by several weeks. Feature creep cost me six consecutive nights of sleep.

The result was far from desirable. The final project was somewhat patchwork — because it lacked proper planning, it grew one ad-hoc step at a time. The interface wasn’t nearly as intuitive as the original design. Proper planning would have resulted in a cleaner, more elegant design. Proper planning would have ensured that the product launched on time. Proper planning would have saved the project. Lesson learned.