Is It Out of Scope? — Web development
Is adding a knowledge base or help center out of scope for a web development project?
Yes. A searchable, categorized help center is a real application build, distinct from the site it's added to.
This request tends to arrive once a site is live and support questions are piling up in email — the client wants a self-serve system, and assumes it's a matter of adding a few pages to the existing build.
Is it out of scope?
Yes. A functioning knowledge base needs article categorization, search, and often a content-management layer for whoever writes the articles — a distinct application, not a section of the existing site.
Clause typically implicated
Clause typically implicated
Deliverables clause→ — The original site build didn't include a knowledge-base application; adding one is a separate, unquoted deliverable.
Example contract wording
Example contract wording (illustrative, not legal advice)
The build didn't include a knowledge base — that's its own application with search and article management, distinct from the site itself. I'd scope and quote that as a separate project.
How MarginFlow flags it
MarginFlow flags knowledge-base and help-center build requests outside_scope on development contracts unless the SOW explicitly listed it as a deliverable.