Descoping

Thank you, Associated Press, for alerting us to this useful concept. You can read about it in today's Globe.

Yesterday, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction released an audit suggesting that "many reconstruction projects were being described as complete or otherwise successful when they were not." For example, in 2004 the US Agency for International Development contracted with Bechtel Corp. to construct a children's hospital in Basra; after monthslong delayes, in 2006 the project was "descoped."

What does that mean? Instead of terminating the project -- and thereby admitting failure -- US officials modified the contract to change the scope of the work. "As a result," notes the AP, "a US database of Iraq reconstruction contracts shows the project as complete 'when in fact the hospital was only 35 percent complete when work was stopped,' said investigators, who added that this practice known as 'descoping' occurred frequently."

The earliest Iraq-reconstruction-related article I've seen on descoping, which has been described in a scholarly paper written by three members of the California Institute of Technology faculty as "the strategic abandonment and/or weakening of objectives," was published by AlterNet in 2006. Excerpt:

Parsons, a firm that's worked in the Middle East for years, was contracted to build 150 primary health clinics (PHCs) in Iraq, a project the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, Stuart Bowden, called "the most important program in the [country's] health sector."

After a surreal series of cost over-runs and missed deadlines, it turned out the company would only be able to finish 20 of the clinics. The Army Corps of Engineers, which contracted the job, blamed "contractor performance and lack of openness in addressing schedule and budget issues in a timely fashion." The inspector general noted that, while all the money had been paid, the remaining PHCs are half-built, and the equipment for all 150 clinics was delivered and is now sitting in a warehouse in Baghdad with questionable security. But there's no penalty built into the contract for unfinished work. The 130 half-finished clinics will simply be removed from the contract -- "de-scoping" is a new word one picks up quickly when looking at the hundreds of aborted projects in Iraq.

I think descoping is a bad thing when it comes to Iraq reconstruction. But I also think that the practice could really catch on here on the domestic front, in the war on clutter and overscheduling. Those of us who yearn to slow down, simplify, and do less might want to take our cue from the US Agency for International Development.

For example, ever since I abandoned a half-written book about "outsider intellectuals," several years ago, I've felt burdened by the knowledge that my huge pile of notes is going to waste. But no longer. Thanks to descoping, I've decided that I don't have an incomplete manuscript; I have a complete pile of notes. Mission accomplished!