The Client Adds Work Without Expecting Modifications to Time and Cost
Scope creep can be an actual trial on lots of web design and development projects.
There are times when you are to blame for this. The client cannot be blamed for thinking they are allowed to add more work to the project if you don’t agree to a clearly written project brief upfront. Therefore, your project briefs need to be amended to prevent this problem in the future. The relationship with the client may still be able to be maintained.
The creative process is human nature, so we can always expect revisions and additions from clients once the project is in operation. Often, the team will have ongoing discussions about their website redevelopment and will think of ways to incorporate these ideas.
You might be able to incorporate it based on the nature of the addition. However, if it requires a substantial amount of additional work or time, you must either:
- I would be charging extra fees for it and delaying delivery.
- You should include the costs for services such as these in your contract. For items outside the scope of the project, I charge an hourly rate in addition to a flat rate.
- Add it to the list of post-launch enhancements.
- When the project is complete and the site has been launched, revisit this list with the client and agree on what will be done, when, and for what price. A lot of the things you’ve listed won’t be urgent anymore, or may not even be wanted.
It may be time to end the project if the client refuses to cooperate with either of these suggestions and insists on pushing the boundaries of what was originally agreed upon.
On one of my projects, I spent a great deal of time customizing a third-party theme for a client. I and my team were given a clear project brief stating everything we would do during the project. A contract stipulated the total cost, as well as a rate per hour for any extra work. Nearly every day, new work was added to the project by the client. A member of my team was asked to do extra work without my permission, so I added those items to the post-launch list.
There was no way I could continue the project after informing the client that our contract was broken. My team and I were experiencing extreme stress. Despite not being compensated, it was incredibly beneficial to be able to move on from it.
From the perspective I now have, this project may have started with warning signs that I did not recognize at the beginning. Haggling was particularly important to the client
When and How to Let a Difficult Client Go Guilt-free
The Client Adds Work Without Expecting Modifications to Time and Cost
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