How to Handle Scope Changes in Project Management

Updated November 2024

Scope changes are one of the biggest obstacles to running a profitable architecture or engineering business. Rarely does any project go exactly to the initial plan or schedule. Developing a practical approach to better prepare for the inevitable scope change will help you make every project a success and keep your team on track. 

Scope creek seems unpredictable. Who knows when a client will ask for changes, or when unknown forces will necessitate design changes? Do your proposals and contracts always start with all project information available? Of course these mean there will be changes later on in the project. But what is very predictable about scope creep is that it inevitably will happen. And your business needs to be prepared for these common situations. 

Project managers, firm leaders, and the full project teams should be trained on how to identify scope creep, how to bring it to the attention of the right people, and how to have conversations with clients about it. 

While you may do your best to learn from the mistakes of past projects to create better proposals and contracts, you still won't be able to 100% predict how a project will go. It’s important to understand the impact poor scope change control may have on your project success. Your team should then develop a document process to work through when this happens. 

Project challenges influence your client's perceptions about your project manager, project team, and your firm overall. Scope change is an opportunity to prove your value to the client, assuage their fears, and address concerns. This is vital part of delivering a great customer experience and build trust. Developing a practical approach to better prepare for the inevitable reality of scope change will help you ensure every project is a success. 

Why Do Professional Services Projects Fail?

Projects go off the rails for many reasons. There are things your team can control while others are outside your sphere of influence. Scope change is just one of the many triggers. Some of the most common causes of project failure for professional services firms are: 

• Project schedules and budgets were based on incomplete information

• Unknown project goals and desired outcomes

• Poorly defined project scope up front, which results in scope creep later on in the project 

• A lack of structured project management methodology

• Poor communication between the client and the project team

• Poor communication internally, between firm leadership, project managers, and project team members

• Inadequate resource planning. It's unclear who should be working on what and for how long.

• Project work plan based on inaccurate cost and time estimates

• Unrealistic client expectations

• Over promising what you can deliver

• Hourly fees misalign the interests of the client and of the firm

Regardless of who you ask, whenever a list of reasons for project failure is compiled, scope change is sure to be on the list. It is also one of the things that project managers and firm leaders complain about the most. Too often these complaints come down to blaming the client for unexpected changes. 

High performing firms that have repeat clients find a way to overcome scope changes. They have a system and process to manage scope creep in a way that preserves relationships, and maintains project profitability. Common pitfalls, such as incomplete and poorly defined requirements, lack of scope verification, and scope creep are all symptoms of internal poor scope management and scope change control - not just a fault of the client. 

Scope Change vs. Scope Creep

Before you learn how to manage scope change, it’s important to differentiate scope change from scope creep. While working in project management, you’ve undoubtedly heard both terms. It is important to note that they are not the same. Scope creep, which can be detrimental to your project and firm is a result of poorly managed scope change.  

Scope change is an official decision made by the project manager and the client to change a feature, to expand or reduce its functionality, and trigger additional work to achieve the new desired outcome. This generally involves adjusting the cost, budget, time, team, fees, deliverables, and/or the project schedule. This is a conversation that triggers a new agreement between the client and the firm executing the work. 

Scope creep, on the other hand, refers to the phenomenon where the project scope changes beyond what was originally defined in the statement of work, yet there is no discussion or agreed upon change in the agreement between the client and firm. Scope creep almost always lacks proper planning, costing, and approval processes. Scope creep also tends to happen without a fair corresponding adjustment to your fees for services rendered. 

When designing a new office building, a client may ask you to add a small feature to the entryway that wasn't already planned and budgeted for. Your team may say sure, and start working on the design of this new feature without agreeing on being paid for the additional work. This is an example of scope creep, a seemingly small change that wasn’t defined in the scope document without an agreement to cover the new work. While scope creep might not always mean big changes, it impacts your bottom line. Even seemingly small changes can add up throughout the project. 

With the above example, scope change would be when your client requests the new feature for the entryway of their office building, there is a discussion with the project manager about why they want the change, what the outcome of the change would mean for the client, what additional services would be needed to make the design change, and then an agreement for a fee to cover this additional scope of work. The scope isn't creeping. The scope is changing and everyone is aware of the change and compensated accordingly.  

Managing Scope Change

No matter how well you define a project at the start, occurrences are bound to crop up that will require scope changes. You and your team needs to prepare for these inevitable situations. While scope change is common, it still means there is a change to the original project plan. Mismanaging these changes could create havoc for your projects and negatively impact your profitability. 

7 Steps for Scope Change Control

You need a solid change process that will help you streamline requests, delegate work to the appropriate people, and maintain oversight of your project scope. It’s important to define this process before you get a request for scope change. Your internal project team needs to be trained on how to handle it, and there should be conversations with the clients as part of the onboarding process of a new project, to discuss what happens when scope changes arrise. 

1. Focus on the Foundation: Your Team

Before you can address scope change control, you must implement a process. Trying to introduce any type of controlled change in an organization without any structure can present challenges. When there is no process, frustration sets in and conflict arrises. It is up to you to prepare so these situations become a normal part of project delivery. 

Changing a few aspects of a project is not inherently difficult. Changing organizational behavior to accept changes seamlessly is another matter altogether. The more change you attempt to introduce to your firm, the harder it will be to adapt, accept and embrace that change. There needs to be conversations and training to make everyone prepared and comfortable with change. 

Define a basic process so that, when scope change does happen, everyone at the firm knows how to manage the change. It should be clear how changes are communicated, who needs to be informed, how to engage with clients, how to develop new fees and present those to the clients, and how to adjust project schedules and resource management to address the new project plan. You shouldn't be redefining internal structures on the go, causing costly spinning of wheels. There should be a clearly defined process so everyone know what to expect.  

2. Create a Structured Approach to Documentation

In order to capture the business objectives associated with project requests, you need a structured approach for defining, evaluating, and approving the proposed scope of work. 

Approving the scope of work should involve more than shaking hands or a verbal okay. If a client asks for something in a meeting and your team says sure, it is vital that you follow up with a document that outlines what was requested and agreed to. Ideally, it is associated with a proposal for the price to make that change.

When it comes to project management, approvals or agreements imply documentation. When you document a change or approval, you have evidence of an agreement and a foundation to build on. This documentation should be added to your project database. For example, you can upload contracts and agreements for scope changes to the documents section of your project page in BQE CORE so that information is recorded and visible to the right people. Ideally the new agreement and scope of work should be shared with your entire product team. 

While you may feel like documenting every change is excessive and limiting, creating a record doesn’t mean you are locked in for the rest of the project. Rather, the record sets boundaries and provides a foundation for effective planning. It protects you and your team and reduces your risk if clients ever make demands that were outside what was agreed upon. 

3. The End Game: Define Project Completion

Working beyond the end of a project is a common place for scope creep to occur. This is because reaching the end of a project can be blurry. It's not always obvious when the project is over or the work has been completed. A project is complete when you have delivered on the business objectives as outlined in the original agreement. But how does your firm define final client acceptance? 

Define what this acceptance is before you start your project. Make sure the final sign off process is clear, documented, and that you have a conversation with your client about it during the onboarding process. Everyone working on the project should know how the project will end from the outset - including the client and consultant team. 

Create a formal recognition that the initial objectives defined in your project scope, and all objectives agreed upon in formally approved changes, are met. Consider developing a document or online form that clients fill out to signal the work has been delivered as agreed upon so there is a clear documentation of project completion. This way, any further requests after project completion would be deemed additional scope and a new agreement and price will be proposed for this new work.

4. Manage Expectations by Defining the Process

Aggressively managing expectations is your best opportunity to influence your clients’ perception of value. Meeting and exceeding expectations is the best way to keep clients happy, delivery a great customer experience and have your clients refer you to others. Expectation management should be one of the core pillars of your firm and discussed with your entire team. Everyone at your firm should know that maintaining strong client relationships is an integral part of every role, now matter how junior or senior an employee is. 

To manage expectations during times of uncertainty, it is helpful to have defined processes and documentation of the process that is shared with everyone before a situation arrises. During onboard talk to your clients about how you will manage scope changes or unexpected requirements that will lead to additional work. Define, document, and communicate a structured approach for requesting, evaluating, and approving change requests. Determining decision points in advance can help you avoid any confusion or conflict when change inevitably happens. 

Consider defining pivotal project moments, such as: 

• What a client should do to request changes (and who they need to talk to about them)

• What the steps are for approving changes (both how the client will approve change orders, but also how the firm will approve scope change requests from the client)

• What the associated levels of authority are for approval (who needs to sign off)

• What information is needed to be submitted and reviewed before approval 

• How fees or pricing will be determined for requested changes

• How proposed fees for change orders shall be approved by the client

Keep in mind that too much bureaucracy or unnecessary paperwork may incentivize others to avoid your process. Make this as clear, straightforward and simple as possible. But it definitely has to be more than a casual comment in a meeting or handshake after a business lunch. 

5. Create a Work Breakdown Structure

When defining all the work required to complete a project, work backward from the desired end state and expected benefits. List out the deliverables, the project goals, and the outcomes the clients are looking to achieve. 

Document and validate the full scope of work as you determine what work is required to reach the end goals. Communicate upfront that the project schedule and delieverables are as accurate as possible but that it is normal for changes to occur. Also communicate that client requested changes are in addition to the initial agreement. They are not free and changes must be formally requested, documented, agreed upon, and approved - using the defined process discussed above - before you include them in your project scope of work. 

6. Continuously Manage Change

After you lay the foundation by setting up your systems and processes to deal with changes, all you have left to do is manage according to your policies and plan. You and your team should now manage any change requests that come your way - both large and small. Practice your new processes until they become second nature. It may feel uncomfortable to have these conversations with your clients at first, but it will get easier until everyone is at ease with scope change discussions. 

Also, know when to say “no”. There will be unreasonable requests for scope changes that you shouldn’t green light. Not all scope changes are created equal and part of managing your scope is saying no to unreasonable changes. 

7. Consider the Implications and Get Changes Approved 

After you evaluate and approve a change request, you want to make sure it is also approved by the necessary stakeholders. These are often outlined in your scope change approval process. While you can determine the best process for getting these approvals met, often you’ll need to send the request, detail the scope change, list reasons for your approval, and provide any other details you see fit for the management team. And remember these stakeholders are often outside of your firm. Scope changes can affect your consultant teams and also need to be approved by the right people on your client's team as well. Make sure all necessary parties are updated about the change and sign off on approvals before your team starts the work. 

8. Communicate to the Team 

Your team will feel frustrated if they’re told to make a change and then not given a clear reason as to why. Especially after they’ve invested a lot of time into the project. Few things are more frustrating than being told to change the way you're working without a reason to back it up.

Another common hurdle is under communicating when changes occur. Make sure you update your team as quickly as possible and notify them that change requests may be coming. You don't want them to continue working down the wrong path if you know that that work may be wasted. 

Be sure to involve and inform your team of scope changes right away. When you document the requests, you can clearly let your team know why the change is necessary and get them on board with the change.  

Unplanned changes are common. They can be large and sudden or gradual and subtle. Either way, they all can add up to significant changes to your project schedule and scope over time. By following these steps and having clear communication with everyone involved, you can assure that unexpected changes don’t derail the project.  

9. Use Project Management Software

Your project management software can be a valuable tool for managing scope changes. Use a tool that gives access to your project team for the entire project information, schedule, and assets like contracts and agreements. Transparency will help your team learn and also allow them to feel ownership over their work and better manage their time and effort. Firm Management software should be set up so that project centers have all the information the team will need to stay on top of the schedule, budget, and all scope changes. 

Your project management tool can help reinforce your process for handling requests and scope changes by: 

• Seamlessly managing time tracking, task to-do lists, and project costs from a single dashboard.
  (No more errors and mistakes made by working on multiple software platforms and tracking data through manual processes).  

• Avoid the hassle and clutter of physical reports. Track your team's project performance and progress through built-in digital reporting - both on visual dashboards within the software as well as through automated reports being sent to the right people. This means firm leaders can automatically receive reporting updates so you never miss any issues that can affect the scope of a project.  

• Use real-time insights to keep projects on-time and on-budget, without surprises. This ensures you’re always in the know and scope creep can’t sneak up on you.  

• Understand costs and schedules for each phase of a project with phased billing. Nothing is worse than thinking you’re on track of your budget, only to find out it now costs so much more than initially planned.

• Track progress and budgets — both from a time and cost perspective — to instantly monitor a project’s pulse and course correct before minor issues become major ones. 

If you aren’t already using project management software to prevent scope changes, we welcome you to try a free demo of BQE CORE to see why our customers are seeing profitable projects that stay on schedule and budget every time.  

Want more tips to prevent scope creep, increase efficiency, improve your project management, and lead to higher profits?  

• Download the free eBook:
  10 Fatal Project Management Mistakes and How to Prevent Them

• Watch this on-demand webinar:
  Scope Creep: Identifying and Reducing this Huge Project Management Pitfall
  by Anthony Fasano, PE, President & CEO, Engineering Management Institute and author of Engineer Your Own Success.    

• Read This Blog Post:
  5 Tips For Fending Off Scope Creep
  

BQE CORE Can Help Your Firm Avoid Scope Creep And Better Manage Projects, Time, and Firm Financials

You and your talented team should focus on delivering inspiring projects to your clients and community. Architects and Engineers shape the world we live in. That is why we built BQE CORE to make firm operations easier for growing architecture and engineering businesses. By making operations easier we enable you to do the work you love and make a bigger impact on our world. Learn how we can help streamline your operations so you can get back to the work you love with a free product demo.