Before you invest in scope creep

Teams tend to reach for this after something has already gone wrong. Before you spend anything on scope creep, it is worth confirming a few things are already true.

Clear scope protects the client at least as much as it protects the agency. Anything you cannot measure here, you are deciding by taste, which is fine as long as everyone knows it.

Prerequisites

• You can describe the outcome you want in one sentence
• Someone owns it after the work is done
• Small additions compound into missed deadlines
• You have a way to tell whether it worked

The mistakes we see most

A written change process protects both sides. It is worth being explicit about, because assumptions differ quietly. It is worth deciding this deliberately rather than inheriting whatever the last person set up.

Say yes to the change and honest about the cost. Where this goes wrong is almost never a lack of knowledge. It is the sort of thing that looks like polish right up until it costs you an enquiry.

How to tell if yours is fine

The projects that go badly are rarely the ones with the hardest technical problems. Three things worth confirming about scope creep before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Small additions compound into missed deadlines — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If you want a second opinion on how yours is set up, ask.