What Do You Do About Unpaid Scope Creep? What is Scope Creep? If you operate an architecture, engineering, or similar design practice—no doubt you will have a scope of services, a consultancy agreement or a signed fee proposal, which is agreed at the commencement of the project (or the stage). This should clearly articulate what services you will be providing for an agreed fee and that the project is performed on-time, to budget, and with great outcomes for all the parties involved. Scope creep is when you perform work that is outside of this agreed scope of services. There are 2 main types of scope creep: 1. Changes to the scope created by external factors 2. Changes to the scope created by internal factors Occasionally the industry is paid in the first scenario, however, you’ll likely never be paid in the second. Unpaid scope creep is still a major issue for architects, engineers, designers, and professional services in general.
Why does it occur? Generally, projects performed to the agreed scope of services are few and far between, when creative professionals are actively engaged with clients, authorities, other consultants, and local government for any length of time. Those factors outside of the control of the architect, engineer or designer (external factors) include: • A change of client • Changes to rules and regulations • Unknown environmental or site conditions Work performed because of this is typically called a variation or change to the services—and sometimes you are reimbursed for this work. However, most scope creep is created because of internal factors created within the studio, and you will never be paid for this. These reasons include: • Lack of clarity in the scope of services • Inadequate internal controls • Unresolved designs • Over documentation • Not capturing the out of scope work • Not clearly articulating what is outside the scope i.e. what you won’t do
