The gradual expansion of a project beyond what was originally agreed, without matching adjustments to the price or timeline.
Scope creep rarely arrives as one big demand. It arrives as “one quick thing” — an extra page, another revision round, a second logo variant — each too small to renegotiate over, until the project is 40% bigger than what was quoted.
It’s not usually malicious. Clients often don’t know what’s out of scope because the scope was never written down precisely. That’s the fix: a written scope listing deliverables, revision rounds, and what happens to requests outside the list (they’re welcome — as a change order with a price).
Professionals who handle this well name it early and neutrally: “Happy to add that — it’s outside our original scope, so I’ll send a quick quote.” Clients who handle it well expect exactly that response.