Scope Creep Examples — Web development
Emergency weekend work, with no after-hours terms in place
A production bug surfaces Saturday night and the client expects an immediate fix — the agreement never addressed after-hours support or on-call terms.
A production issue surfaces Saturday evening — a checkout bug preventing orders from completing, discovered by the client, not the dev team. They message urgently expecting an immediate fix, treating it as an obvious emergency the developer should drop everything for. The SOW's warranty and support terms cover defects, but say nothing about response times or availability outside business hours — there's no on-call arrangement in place at all.
Clause typically implicated
Clause typically implicated
Warranty clause→ — Usually covers whether a bug is fixed for free, but rarely specifies response time or after-hours availability — worth checking this agreement specifically before assuming either way.
Suggested change-order wording
Suggested change-order wording (illustrative, not legal advice)
I can look into this tonight given it's actively blocking orders. Our agreement covers bug fixes but doesn't include after-hours emergency response as a standard term, so this weekend work would be billed at an emergency rate of [X]. Going forward, if guaranteed after-hours coverage would be valuable, we could discuss adding an on-call support tier to the agreement.
How this usually resolves
A production-blocking bug is usually worth responding to quickly regardless of the billing conversation — but flagging the emergency rate in the same message (not after the fact) matters, since billing an unexpected premium after the work's already done tends to create more friction than agreeing to it upfront.
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