PRACTICE | Managing Scope Creep

Article by Damian Holmes

Scope creep (when the project requires more work than contracted or intended) often occurs during various stages of a project – procurement, design/production and novation. Often, it is due to misunderstandings or an incomplete scope (tasks, deliverables), and it also depends on the delivery method – design or design & construct. As a consultant, you need to understand scope creep and the possible impacts on your projects and business.

Procurement (Tender/Proposal) Stage

Procurement is a critical time to reduce the risk of scope creep and misunderstandings about your services.

Explain the Processes

The first step in managing scope creep is to provide your client with a clear outline and understanding of your scope (tasks, deliverables, timeline), during the procurement (tender/proposal) stage. You also need to outline the design process, including the review and change process (e.g., design changes or changes to staging or separating areas), along with the financial or time implications, such as fee variations or project delays.

Devil in the Contract Details

As part of the contract, you need to have the scope information detailed, including stages, deliverables, deadlines and approvals. It needs to be in plain English, using known industry terms. This will reduce the possibility of misunderstandings and allow you to request scope variations when needed.

Lead Consultant Coordination

Often clients opt to designate a single consultant as the lead to coordinate all consultants’ scope. If you do become the lead consultant and manage the other (sub)consultants, you need to clearly understand each discipline’s scope and coordinate across disciplines during the procurement stage to ensure that it is clear what each consultant’s scope is and what is excluded. Engaging subconsultants requires more time and resources to manage scope and minimise scope creep or omissions.

Exclusions and Assumptions

Scope creep can occur during the procurement stage when the client (or procuring agency) does not fully understand or outline the required services and fails to include them in the tender documents. Therefore, be sure to include what you are excluding from your scope. An example would be that the landscape architect has an exclusion stating that all structures are out of scope or includes the assumption that any structures shall be reviewed and approved by another consultant. Alternatively, during the procurement phase, you can provide an alternative scope or optional service, along with associated fees.

Providing a clear list of exclusions and assumptions, or an alternative scope, highlights any possible scope gaps to the client, solidifies your scope, and prevents possible misunderstandings.

Production

During the Production (Site Analysis, Consultation, Design, Development, etc) stage, various issues can arise, and you need to take steps to manage scope creep.

The game of whose scope is it?

During production, there will likely be a point when it becomes apparent that part of the project scope has not been allocated to any consultant. Often, the project manager (client) will try to attribute the missing scope to a consultant to avoid a variation or change order.  Therefore, you need to read and understand the contract, as it often includes clauses that leave the scope open-ended regarding required work or certification.

Often, scope creep occurs due to misunderstandings about consultant services and the level of detail expected at each stage. The level of resolution or detail can vary between cities, states (provinces), or clients. Many clients understand what they expect to be delivered but have minimal understanding of the process and how it may vary. You may also have inexperienced project managers or clients who do not fully understand what they will receive or when they can make changes. To avoid this, it is best to provide a timeline and examples of past work, or to refer to standards (local, national, etc) during the procurement phase.

Quantify Changes

Scope creep can occur in relation to rework or changes. During production, there will be required updates and changes to the documents; as the consultant, you need to manage these to meet the stated contract timeline (staging/gates) and also understand the quantum of design changes allowed to avoid scope creep.

Minimise Coordination Delays

Your scope and timelines can be impacted by other consultants; you need to be aware of when coordination is required, what to do (notifications) if another consultant is delayed in a way that impacts your project scope or timeline, when approvals will occur, and whether any stage is running in parallel (e.g., you are developing design, development, and construction documents in parallel). This is to avoid any possible unnecessary rework or revisions.

You need to provide your deliverables to avoid affecting other consultants, as you do not wish to face delays caused by you missing deadlines or providing insufficient information.

If you are the lead consultant, you need to be across all consultant disciplines, ensure the scope aligns with client requirements, and ensure that any exclusions are either addressed or agreed to by the client.

Novation

Novation often occurs when a contractor or other people take over the project (usually at construction) from your current client and requires the consultant to sign (execute) a Deed of Novation. This deed (form) should have been presented as part of the contract prior to signing. At this time, the contractor may strongly request changes to clauses or to the construction scope (construction administration) stage of the project. This is when scope creep can occur, as they (contractor or other people) seek more work or time from the consultant without a fee variation. During novation, you need to be vigilant about agreeing to changes without a proper review and fee consideration to ensure that there is no scope creep.

Also, during the novation period, you need to understand when you need to attend, what advice or documents you are providing and who is certifying the work. Any of these can easily turn into scope creep for which you may not have allocated fees.

How to avoid scope creep?

As you now have some understanding of scope creep and how it occurs, you need to avoid or minimise scope creep by undertaking the following:

Timing is Everything

It is important to include a timeline (schedule/programme) in the contract that shows the stage deadlines, reviews, and approval dates, and include any parts of the scope that are running in parallel. These are best shown as a Gantt chart (schedule diagram).

You also need to notify the client or project manager if the deadlines are revised and the flow-on effects on future deadlines, and request or provide an updated schedule or programme.  

Who’s Responsible

Often, scope creep comes down to misunderstandings about whose scope it is (landscape architect, engineer, interiors, lighting, irrigation, etc.). A table (matrix) of roles and responsibilities (RACI or MOCHA or RAPID matrix) that outlines whose scope it is, who is consulted or advising, and who approves it. This is optional for small projects and is often used only for complex or large projects. As an alternative, a simple list of all responsibilities for each scope or element may suffice.

Review Contracts

Too often, landscape architects feel pressured to win projects or lack the knowledge to review contracts, and either sign without review or expect their legal advisor to negotiate changes. Your legal advisor will often advise only on legal risks, not on commercial or scope risks.

Therefore, you need to undertake review contracts and make sure that they include:

1. The scope is what is usually expected of your discipline and is not open-ended.
2. The amount (times or hours/days) of consultation with the client, other consultants and stakeholders.
3. The deadlines, staging and approval process, and who is responsible for approvals.
4. An exclusions and/or assumptions list that is clear.
5. What occurs if your scope or timeline is impacted by other consultants?
6. Process for scope changes/variation including fee calculations (hourly rate table or similar)
7. It does not include open language regarding standards or levels of service.
8. Whether there are repercussions (variation, liquidated damages) for you causing a delay.

Brief your team

To avoid scope creep, you need to brief your team and ensure they understand the scope, staging, the approval process, and when to request a variation/change order. Your team needs to understand that accepting and actioning every request and change can easily create scope creep that ends up taking the same amount of time and costing the same amount as the original fee.

Communication

Communicate consistently with your client and other consultants to ensure everyone understands your scope, deliverables, timelines, and the information or input required. If you have outstanding issues or action items, then you need to make sure these are communicated.

When it comes to scope changes, landscape architects can be too reserved in requesting a variation or change, which can make it hard to obtain approvals for a scope or fee variation later, especially if the contract includes minimum and maximum notification periods.  

Keep good records

In the age of project management systems (Aconex, Procore, etc) it seems almost as if there is too much tracking of notifications, emails, documents, etc. However, these are often across disparate systems (email, chat, filing, etc). The team needs to ensure that you have a written record of all instructions, approvals, phone calls, and notes, either in meeting minutes, emails, or project management portals, for later reference. It may cost time and be tedious, but it may come back to save you if there is a variation dispute or claim from another consultant (when you are lead consultant)

Act Professionally

As a consultant, you also need to act professionally and follow a consultative process with the client at all stages to ensure you provide the advice and service expected of a professional in a timely manner. Being overly proactive or lax in addressing scope creep can create an adversarial relationship between you and the client. When submitting formal notifications (variations or changes), make sure they understand what is changing, why it is changing, and the impacts on fees and timelines. You should also use the client’s template or a professional template to ensure each notification is clear (includes all necessary information) each time you submit one.

Managing Subconsultants

Your subconsultants need to understand the project process and client expectations and ensure that your project manager has the experience and competence (or is overseen by someone competent), to avoid scope creep or potential client complaints. Also, you need to clarify how subconsultants communicate with clients and who approves deliverables, variations, etc., to ensure they do not undertake out-of-scope work or unauthorised rework.

Scope creep can occur over time, and small changes can end up becoming almost projects in themselves due to the extra time, resources, and administration required. Not managing scope creep can make it hard for people, teams and businesses to work efficiently and profitably. If you have a client who continually makes changes and you don’t manage them, then at the end of the project you will most likely resent them and the project.  You are a professional who should be fairly compensated for your skills, knowledge and experience and managing scope creep is part of providing professional services.

Although this article is not an exhaustive list of scope creep issues or guidance on managing it, I hope it provides information for discussion and helps you manage scope creep in your projects and business.

DISCLAIMER: This article is for educational purposes only. The content is intended only to provide a summary and general overview of matters of interest. It’s not intended to be comprehensive nor to constitute advice. You should always obtain professional advice appropriate to your circumstances before acting or relying on any of that content. This advice is general in nature.

Article by Damian Holmes – Founder and Editor of World Landscape Architecture