I can stop  one project and start a different one to accommodate you. But experience has taught me the perils of “scope creep”…where one project morphs into more than we both anticipated. 

While some consultants and contractors are idle and have lots of time between gigs, I don’t. That’s the mark of an expert and authority with nearly 40 years of experience and client development. 

5. Assumptions and duties of each party to the project

Just like with limitations, we must agree on that which each side brings into the project. A client may wrongly assume that I will be using a template from a previous project or a template on file and with a few adjustments have their outputs ready to go. That’s an assumption of a fact not always in evidence. 

The same thing happens with assumptions of what a website project will include including a specific number of pages and features. I need to know if I am writing content or simply editing it for you.  Writing original content takes far more time than editing someone else’s content for SEO and proper English. We must first agree and specify how big the project is, what it involves, and who’s doing what by when. 

6. Inclusions and exclusions

You hate price creep. I hate scope creep. To keep your project focused and on budget we must make sure you clearly articulate what’s included in a project — and what’s not.  

7. Resources

My team and I cannot do our best work if we don’t know what resources are available to us. Including this is essential in how I draft a project scope. For example, when developing the Greek National Medical Tourism Strategy, I needed an office, secretarial support, and travel and subsistence for four trips during the situation analysis. While in Greece, I needed ground transfers to and from appointments, official translation from the legislative Gazette, and legal interpretation of various laws. The project owners had to provide that for me. They also provided the computer for me to use and a printer and c-o-f-f-e-e!  Backstopping on international projects is a big deal when the consultant travels from afar and is expected to work locally for weeks at a time.  The budget estimate I give cannot include those items as I don’t have a clue what local office space and staffing costs may be.  While I can estimate travel, the costs are what they are. It’s always best to look to the project owner to arrange discounts on hotels and driver services and appointment setting and translation/interpretation. 

The same goes for if you have a specific budget allocated for training. The training venue, audio visual services, course materials development and distribution and translation and interpreter services must be worked out by the project owner, not the consultant. If I bring materials with me, there’s the possibility of import duty and extra baggage fees. Why pay that when I can send a soft copy and duplication can be performed locally?

8. Cost

If I am to work on a project with billable hours, we must establish in the project scope exactly what is billable, when payments are due, how payments are to be tendered, deadlines, what happens if you don’t pay when due,  and how much time I allocate for your project.  I must also pass through or bundled costs associated with specific aspects and elements. Budgeting helps us both have clearly stated project costs and any requests that may require extra time and funding.  If you are undercapitalized for what you want done, be up front with me and ask me for ways to try to cut costs or prioritize and put some things off for later so we can get you as close to what you need as possible. That’s better than a default where I need to withhold deliverable at the end…because I will freeze your account if a default occurs.

9. Agreement

Everything in a scope of work is negotiable. Your Scope of Work must be signed by both of us and any subcontractors or other responsible parties and attached to our engagement agreement as a de facto meeting of the minds. The courts look to this document with more importance and priority than the contract itself as it explains expectations, deadlines, deliverable and intention of the parties to do business. Without it, I won’t accept or start your project.

10. The project schedule

Once we have agreed to the scope of your project — only then can we make the project alive and take action.  Each deliverable must be associated with a list of the tasks required to achieve each one. The notes will include who is responsible for each task, and how long we’ve budgeted to complete the work. While we both intend to be realistic — the schedule should be flexible enough to allow for agility and accommodate small insignificant changes. Larger changes will have to be reworked and evaluated for costs.

11. Formatting the project scope

There’s no one right way to format a project scope document. It can be as simple as a text document — or, if your processes are more complicated, visualizations can help you clearly illustrate how each piece of a project fits together. 

Very recently, a project manager asked me to propose a scope of work with no information on budget, funding, resources, timeline, and just throw some bullet points on paper for him. I declined to waste my time doing that for him. I’d rather not take on such an amorphous assignment. If the client cannot specify some details, it isn’t a project I want. My time is valuable and scarce. If you cannot respect that, we shouldn’t work together.

Another called me and belligerently accosted me for asking how I could be of service. Did he expect me to read his mind? Sorry, that costs extra! A lot extra! And you’ll have to wait til hell freezes over first.