Scope Creep Is a Project Management Problem. Here’s How to Prevent It
This is from Chapter 22 of my recent book, How to Become a Successful Creative Freelancer. It’s slightly edited for length.
Scope creep happens when a project goes beyond the agreed-upon scope without additional budget.
Typically, you and the client have agreed to the definition of the job, but then the client wants to keep adding to it. Or, there are endless revisions that the client thinks should be included without extra costs.
The Hard Truth—Scope Creep is Generally Your Fault
As a freelancer, you’re running a business. Your estimates should provide enough detail so that you and the client understand exactly what you’re including in your deliverable and what would be extra, if necessary.
Your Terms & Conditions should define how many rounds of revisions are included in the estimate.
If you often find yourself doing unpaid work, you need to review your processes, estimates, and communication with the client.
Having a Hard Time Saying No? You Have to Learn
For many of us, it’s easier to say yes than no. But in this business, that will cost you. If, by nature, you’re a people-pleaser who only wants to help your clients, you’ll be doing a lot of free work.
Here’s the irony. From the client’s perspective, it starts to feel unprofessional. You come across as a pushover with no processes or boundaries in place.
You get far more respect when you draw the lines for clients and demonstrate that you have a disciplined way of working.
However, that doesn’t mean you behave like a hard-core authoritarian. Present your processes in a friendly, cooperative fashion. Your goal is simply to work together in a way that’s proven to deliver successful outcomes.
The Top 5 Reasons for Scope Creep and How to Prevent Them
Let’s start at the beginning…
Scope Creep Reason #1: You Get an Inadequate Brief
Many projects have a poor start and continue that way. That’s often due to a “light-on-details” verbal or email brief.
No matter what type of project you’re doing, you need a complete brief. Without a fully defined scope, you’ll be redoing work, changing direction, and adding or editing content. The scope keeps growing, and you’re never done.
The real problem is when you don’t recognize that the brief is inadequate yet create an estimate based on it.
Or you do recognize the inadequacy but don’t speak up. In other words, you’ve accepted a crappy brief.
How to Prevent It:
This is where experience and confidence play a role. If you’ve done similar projects, you know what it takes to deliver this project. You also know you need more info and are confident enough to ask the client for it.
To reduce the potential for scope creep, write a list of questions to get the information you need to flesh out the client brief. Then, edit the brief to include the new information. Based on the new brief, present an estimate for approval.
You may think it’s not your job to create or edit the brief. You’re right, but if you don’t work with the client to fix it, who will?
Furthermore, if you don’t get a detailed brief now, you’ll be dealing with the pain later. Better that you help the client define and limit the project with appropriate detail.
I can’t exaggerate the importance of agreeing to a detailed brief. The brief will be your reference document for creating the estimate and determining what’s in scope throughout the project.
Charge for your time to do this. For smaller projects, just bury it in your estimate. For more significant projects, especially tech jobs with many potential options, your first estimate should be for Scope Definition. You’ll work with the client to define the project scope. This becomes a project unto itself.
In the past, I partnered with a big IT company. For significant projects, they had an upfront scope definition fee of $25,000. This was for 6-figure and 7-figure projects.
If the client didn’t agree to the upfront scope definition phase, they wouldn’t proceed.
Scope Creep Reason #2: Adequate Brief, Inadequate Estimate
Suppose you received a well-written brief with all the information you needed.
But you got lazy and created a poor estimate in response. Remember, it’s your estimate that gets approved and will become the reference document for the project scope.
How to Prevent It:
While the client brief defines WHAT is required, the estimate should also outline HOW you will deliver the project, including the limits on that delivery.
An estimate should cover:
The details of the project
Your process for completing the project
The limits at each step
A timeline (for big projects)
Payment terms
Use the brief as a basis for your estimate. However, don’t just cut and paste the brief into the estimate. Instead, break it down by your specific deliverables, phases of delivery, and, most importantly, limiting factors, such as the number of creative options and revisions.
When you include the details of the brief, you allow your client to see how their brief fits into your delivery of the project.
Also, in bigger organizations, your estimate might be reviewed by additional stakeholders and even procurement departments. You want to give them the complete story with plenty of detail.
You might be surprised by how the project scope can change once others have input. It’s in your best interest that any scope changes happen before you start rather than halfway through the job.
I provided an estimate template here.
Scope Creep Reason #3: Poor Terms & Conditions
Every project should include several limiting factors in the Terms & Conditions. If you don’t have them, the client may feel there’s no limit. It’s up to you to define them and then stick to them.
How to Prevent It:
Have a checklist of limiting factors to include in every estimate:
The number of options for each element in the initial creative presentations
Detailed deliverables within each creative option
Length of copy for the finished product
Number of pages for finished documents, websites
The number of elements to be produced (charts, graphs, illustrations, photographs, animations, etc.)
How many creative options are you providing? (This generally applies to projects that include graphic design.) I usually offered three. Three is a magic number. I wrote about the power of three for successful presentations here. However, you may want to provide more options for some types of projects, such as logo development.
Whatever number you settle on, define it and agree to it now.
What are the deliverables within each option? For a website, you might say that you’ll show five key pages of the site for each option.
Again, get agreement on the number.
For copy, you could reference an approximate word count.
For documents and websites, define how many key pages you’ll show.
For charts, graphs, illustrations, and photographs, define how many options for styles, and based on chosen styles, how many completed units. Charts and graphs have a way of growing in number, so it’s a good idea to show a cost per unit so there are no surprises later.
In summary, limit the number of options and choices for everything. Be explicit and make sure the client agrees.
Find a more detailed post on terms and conditions for freelancers here.
The Most Critical Limiting Scope Factor—How Many Rounds of Revisions
This is where most scope creep happens. You deliver the project, and then the revisions start. How do you cut it off? How do you tell them that what they’re asking for will cost extra?
You need to tell them upfront. Here is some standard language you can use in every estimate:
“This estimate includes up to two rounds of revisions. Further revisions, if necessary, will be estimated in advance.”
For new clients, be sure to discuss what constitutes a revision. For me, technically, a revision occurred any time I opened a document to make a change.
So, encourage your clients to get feedback from all stakeholders and give you all changes at once. Let them know a group of ten changes equals one round of revisions. Ten changes, one at a time, are ten rounds of revisions, and that gets expensive.
If, after one round of revisions, it looks like you’re heading into round two, mention it to the client. This signals that this next round is the last round included in the project scope, so they should gather up all loose ends now. Let them know, in the nicest way possible, that any further revisions will be estimated. In other words, they will cost extra.
Let’s say they’ve done their two rounds of revisions. And here come some more…
You have to make a quick decision. If it’s a 5-minute job, you can decide whether or not to “throw it in”. But the important thing is, you have to say something. When you get that call or email, ask if that’s all. Then you can say something like, “Well, technically, I’ve completed the revisions included in the estimate, but I’m happy to squeeze this in.”
Why say that? Because if yet another bunch of revisions come in, nobody should be surprised when you say you’ll provide an estimate for the out-of-scope work.
If it’s more than a 5-minute job, let the client know you’ll send an estimate for the additional work. Be sure you get approval on that estimate before you start working. Sometimes, when clients see the cost of the extra work, they change their minds. So, get approval before starting.
Make a point of reviewing all limiting factors with the client before you start a project. Why? Clients may ask you to include more rounds of revisions upfront because they know their company’s detailed approval process.
Scope Creep Reason #4: Poor Definition of Process
The larger the project, the more critical it is to have good processes in place. You need a clearly defined process that the client understands and agrees to. Otherwise, projects tend to wander, and that leads to scope creep.
Try not to accept verbal changes from the client. If they want to give you verbal changes, send back an email outlining the changes. You want documentation in case it comes up later.
If the changes are within scope, let them know it counts as a revision. It’s your job to make clients aware that their “little changes” count as revisions.
If the changes are out of scope, send a quick estimate for approval before doing the work.
How to Prevent It:
For significant projects, your process should include:
A formal kick-off meeting to start the project. Call it a project kick-off, or working session, or scope confirmation. This gives the client confidence that you have taken control and understand the project.
The breakdown of the project into stages/phases
The deliverables for each phase, which include the number of revisions for each phase
The required approvals along the way before you proceed with the next phase
A timetable, assuming timing is essential, especially for approvals (timing should be important, for your sake)
A summary of payment requirements, including deposit, any payments upon deliverable completion, final payment
For smaller projects, you could do your kick-off meeting over the phone. It’s a last chance to make any changes before you start work.
Also, by nature, smaller projects don’t have numerous phases, and the timetable may be obvious (first draft or layout by Tuesday).
But your estimate should definitely include payment details and Terms & Conditions.
Super Important for Big Projects and New Clients
If you have a process for successfully delivering jobs (I hope so), stick to that process, and don’t let a client change it too much. Stay with what works.
Explicitly review the estimate, section by section, with the client on the phone or face-to-face. This allows them to ask questions, confirm their understanding, or request changes.
Don’t just send it over. You have no idea whether the client has read it in detail. Otherwise, later, you’ll hear, “Oh, I didn’t catch that…”
Get Approvals for Each Phase Along the Way
Project scope often goes off the rails when you work ahead before getting approval for previous steps.
For example, imagine if you didn’t get agreement on a graphic style for charts, and you went ahead and finished all of the charts, and the client says, “Nah, don’t like it.” Now you’re redoing them all.
Whose fault? Yours.
Don’t work ahead without explicit approval of an example. Whenever possible, you should build in preliminary review phases. For writing, do a small sample to get approval of tone and language.
For design elements, design one, tweak it, get approval, then do the rest.
Call this phase an outline, example, overview, rough sketch, or whatever is appropriate. Tell clients it’s a chance to review, to make sure you’re “on the same page”.
If Timing is Important, You Need to Agree on a Timeline
I like to include timing in my projects. It keeps the clients focused, and the job gets done. It’s not efficient if a one-week project drags out to six weeks. While technically, it may not be out of scope, it’s not a good way to work.
So, put in a timetable and get the client to agree. Typically, you’ll have deadlines to meet deliverables, and the client will have deadlines for approvals to allow you to move forward.
Adding a timeline makes you look more professional, too.
Scope Creep Reason #5: Fear of “Money Talk” = Weak Payment Terms = Scope Creep
Now we’re going deep…
Perhaps you shy away from “money talk”. It makes you uncomfortable. There’s a fear that the client won’t like it, that you won’t get paid or rehired. There’s also a desire to please, and asking for money gets awkward, especially money upfront.
So, you don’t ask for deposits or payment by deliverable. You think it’s okay to get paid when the job is done.
Do you see the problem here? You’re putting yourself in a position to be held for ransom.
“The job is over when I say it is, and that’s when I’ll pay you, and not a penny more! And if I don’t like it, I’m not paying anything!”
This can lead to endless scope creep and revisions, and you have no power. The client has your deliverables to date and all of the money.
How to Prevent It
Money talk is part of business. Get comfortable, confident, and consistent with it.
Get upfront payments, especially with new clients. You have expenses to pay, and you’re not wasting time chasing receivables.
I wrote how to start every project with a deposit here.
On bigger projects, break them down so you get payment by deliverable.
It helps you and the client “wrap up” that deliverable, so it’s less likely that the client will backtrack.
It also means you’re not doing endless revisions because you’re afraid if you don’t do them, you won’t get paid at all. Do not allow yourself to be held for ransom.
I wrote about how to talk about money with clients here.
There’s much more about scope creep and managing projects and clients in both of my books.
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