Scope creep
Scope creep is when a project slowly grows beyond what was agreed, one small extra request at a time, without the price or the deadline changing to match.
What it means
No single request feels big. "Could you just add a gallery?" "Can the menu have a download button?" Each one takes an hour or two. Ten of them later, the project is a week longer than you priced, and neither of you ever agreed to that.
Scope creep usually starts with a friendly conversation that nobody wrote down. The client remembers mentioning something on the first call; you remember it differently. Neither of you is wrong, but only one of you is doing the extra work for free.
An example
A bakery owner signs off a five-page website. A month in, she asks where the online ordering is, because she's sure it came up on the first call. If the scope says "online ordering: not included, can be quoted separately", the conversation takes one message. If nothing was written down, it takes a week.
How to stop it
- Write a short scope before you start: what you'll build, what the client provides, and what isn't included.
- When a new request comes in, say whether it's included, and if it isn't, give the price before you do the work.
- Keep the answer friendly. "Happy to add that, it's outside what we agreed, so here's the price" keeps the client and the project.