Scope Creep: Just an Extra Widget, Please?
How many times have you sat in a meeting and wondered why they are still adding extra features even though the project is running late and over budget? A change here and a tweak there. A little restructuring of the information architecture. Some design decisions that require serious backend attention by the team.
Similarly, we’ve probably all had the client who asks for that little extra widget, a page they hadn’t considered or something that came to mind on the trip over which might take only an hour (but possibly most of a day). And you concede because you’re a nice person, and you do it several times. The budget goes south and your children starve in the streets.
My suggestion is that once you make an agreement on a date, a deliverable and a payment you enforce it rigidly. Make that clear to the client or stakeholder from the very beginning. Make it clear you’ll take new features on board, but that new features can only be worked on after the agreed contract work ends and payment is received. If the bar keeps moving you’ll never bring their work in on time and under budget.
You may have noticed the moment you show an interface to the client everyone has an opinion and a list of things that would be ‘great to have’ and ‘must be removed’. My point – get signoff. Get paid. Focus on getting things done.
