Is It Out of Scope? — Web development
Is migrating to a new hosting provider out of scope for a web development project?
Usually yes. Migrating a live build to a new provider means re-provisioning infrastructure, moving data, and testing the cutover end to end — real engineering work distinct from building or maintaining the site on the host it was built for.
The functional spec and the environment it was built and tested against were both defined around a specific host — a particular server setup, a specific database service, specific environment variables and deploy pipeline. A request to move to a new provider (often for cost, or because the client's company standardized on a different stack) means rebuilding that environment somewhere else: new server or container config, database migration, DNS cutover, and regression-testing that the build behaves identically on the new infrastructure.
Is it out of scope?
Yes. This is infrastructure work, not application work, and it wasn't part of the SOW's functional requirements even when the same team is technically capable of doing it. The risk profile also matters here — a rushed migration can mean real downtime or data loss, which is itself an argument for scoping and testing it properly rather than folding it into ongoing support hours.
Clause typically implicated
Clause typically implicated
Hosting and maintenance clause→ — Covers hosting and maintenance on the environment the build was delivered on — moving to different infrastructure is new setup work outside that arrangement.
Example contract wording
Example contract wording (illustrative, not legal advice)
The build was delivered and is maintained on [current host/infrastructure]. Migrating to [new provider] means re-provisioning the environment, migrating the database, and testing the cutover — I'd scope this as its own piece of work rather than folding it into ongoing maintenance hours, given the downtime risk if it's rushed. I can put together a migration plan and a fixed quote.
How MarginFlow flags it
MarginFlow reads the request against the extracted hosting and maintenance terms and, separately, against the deliverables list — a hosting migration matches neither, since it's new infrastructure work rather than a fix to the existing build. The classifier flags it outside_scope with a confidence score, an explanation an account manager can act on immediately, and a suggested charge, and creates an Alert rather than letting the request get quietly absorbed into a support ticket queue.