Scope Creep Examples — Web design
New stakeholders join and want their own review cycle
Design was approved by the original point of contact. Two new stakeholders are added to the account and each wants a fresh round of feedback on work already signed off.
The original point of contact reviewed and approved the design in writing, closing out the agreed revision rounds. Before the project wraps, two more people from the client's team — a regional manager and someone from legal — are looped in and each sends their own list of feedback, as if the approval never happened. Individually neither person is being unreasonable; collectively, it's a third and fourth review cycle on work that was already signed off by the person authorized to sign off on it.
Clause typically implicated
Clause typically implicated
Acceptance testing clause→ — Usually names who on the client side has authority to approve — new stakeholders added after that approval don't reopen it automatically.
Suggested change-order wording
Suggested change-order wording (illustrative, not legal advice)
The design was formally approved by [original contact] on [date], which closed out our agreed revision rounds. Happy to loop the new team members in for context, but incorporating a fresh round of feedback from each of them would be additional revision rounds beyond what's scoped — estimated at [X] per round. Alternatively, I can gather all new feedback into a single consolidated round if that's more useful.
How this usually resolves
Offering one consolidated round for all the new stakeholders' feedback together, rather than a separate round per person, is usually the practical middle ground — it acknowledges new voices without letting the review cycle count scale with headcount.
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