Is It Out of Scope? — Web development
Is auditing a newly acquired competitor's site out of scope for a web development project?
Yes. A technical audit of a different site is real analysis work outside the current build's scope, whatever future work it might inform.
After an acquisition, a client might ask their dev team to assess the acquired site's codebase, stack, or technical debt — useful information, but a real piece of analysis work outside what's currently scoped.
Is it out of scope?
Yes. A technical audit — reviewing an unfamiliar codebase, stack, hosting, and technical debt — takes real time and expertise, and the current build's scope doesn't cover assessing a different site.
Clause typically implicated
Clause typically implicated
Out-of-scope clause→ — The engagement's scope is defined around the current build — auditing a separate, newly acquired site is additional work.
Example contract wording
Example contract wording (illustrative, not legal advice)
A technical audit of the acquired site is outside the current engagement — reviewing an unfamiliar codebase and stack properly takes real time. I can scope that as a fixed-fee audit, which would also set us up well if a migration or rebuild ends up happening.
How MarginFlow flags it
MarginFlow flags requests to assess a codebase or site outside the contract's named scope as outside_scope, with a suggested charge based on typical audit-scope pricing rather than the ongoing build's hourly rate alone.