{
  "id": "scope-creep.drift",
  "term": "scope creep",
  "sense": "drift",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 19,
  "arena": "organizational_change",
  "domain": "project_management",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "A parameter that moves without maintenance because no one is watching the wall it will hit.",
  "folk_gloss": "When a project slowly expands beyond its original goals without anyone noticing.",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "drift.aimless",
      "wall.range-end",
      "maintenance.upkeep",
      "parameter.condition"
    ],
    "interaction": "A change in a thing's condition that was not acted on, allowing it to move toward a boundary.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "unnoticed progression toward a breaking point"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The 2003 Columbia shuttle disaster followed foam insulation strikes on five prior missions that were normalized despite rising damage.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "Windows Vista shipped after two years of feature additions that delayed release and expanded hardware requirements beyond initial plans.",
      "domain": "computing"
    },
    {
      "text": "The U.S. federal budget for defense grew from $300B in 2000 to over $700B in 2020, absorbing missions beyond original Cold War scope.",
      "domain": "institutions"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "scope creep"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — drift nobody noticed"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-scope-creep.drift"
}