A new stake holder has joined the project team and requested modifications that will result in minor changes to the project budget and schedule project manager is concerned that the requests will…

Quality control issues relate to defects or standards not being met, not to informal requests that expand scope.

While scope changes can introduce risk, the project manager's primary concern described here is the uncontrolled expansion of scope itself, not a new risk event.

Scope creep occurs when incremental, often informal changes to the project's scope are introduced without going through formal change control. A new stakeholder requesting modifications that alter the budget and schedule - even if described as minor - is a classic indicator that the project scope is expanding beyond its approved baseline. Left unmanaged, these small changes accumulate and can significantly derail the project.

Time constraints are a potential downstream consequence of scope creep, not the root cause concern the project manager is identifying.