Waterfall scope management

An approach to controlling project scope where requirements and deliverables are fully defined and locked before work begins, with subsequent phases proceeding sequentially — the counterpart to agile's iterative approach.

Example

A print and physical-signage rebrand project locks the complete deliverables list and specifications before any production work begins, since physical materials can't be iterated on mid-project the way a digital product can.

Why it matters for agencies

Waterfall scope management makes an upfront scope baseline especially critical, since there's no built-in checkpoint (like agile's sprint planning) to formally re-evaluate scope partway through — any change genuinely has to go through a discrete, standalone change-order process.