Ryan Stout, co-owner of Astute Communications was asked to speak to a Business Consulting class in the MBA program at Belmont University. In the presentation, he covered setting expectation, scope of work, and rules to consider when working with clients.

1. Managing Scope of Work
How Setting Expectations can
Make or Break your Business
RYAN STOUT @ASTUTE_RYAN RYAN@ASTUTE.CO
ASTUTE COMMUNICATIONS

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3. Typical Client
1. Medium-sized business
(Physician Group, Law Firm,
Software/Start-Up,
Construction Company, etc.)
2. Revenue $500K/year -
$5M/year

4. Scope of Work

5. Scope of Work
“The division of work to be performed under
a contract or subcontract in the completion
of a project, typically broken out into
specific tasks with deadlines.”
- www.businessdictionary.com

6. The average large IT
project runs 45% over
budget, 7% over time,
and delivers 56% less
value than expected.
- Project Management Institute:
Pulse of the Profession 2015

7. Scope Creep
“Small changes in a plan or project that
necessitate other changes which lead to
still more changes… and so on.”
- www.businessdictionary.com
Scope Creep

8. “How does a project
get to be a year late?
One day at a time.”
- Frederick Brooks

9. Client Rules

10. Rule No. 1
Assume that most clients, whether malicious
or not, have no understanding of what it
takes
to achieve your deliverables.

11. “You can just add
that later, right?”

12. Client RulesRule No. 2
Assume that most clients have a
“something for free” mindset

13. “I forgot to say
that I needed
_____, but it
shouldn’t take
more than an
hour.”

14. Tips for Managing
Scope Creep

15. Tip No. 1
Start by discussing what is not
included
Tip No. 1

16. Involve Client in defining scope of
work
Involve the client in defining
the scope of work
Tip No. 2

17. Put yourself in the client’s shoes
Tip No. 3

18. Set up minor and major milestones
to review progress
Tip No. 4

19. “Expectations are your client’s vision of
a future state or action, usually
unstated, but which is critical to your
success.”
- David Alve
ryan@astute.co @astute_ryan