Conditions the pricing and timeline depend on but which the supplier does not control: access to systems, availability of named staff, a decision by a stated date.
Assumptions are the mechanism by which a fixed fee stays fixed. If an assumption fails, the scope has changed and a change order follows.
The section of a workstream naming who owns the deliverable inside the client after the engagement ends, and through what existing meeting or process it is sustained.
The most common cause of a successful project that produces no change is a deliverable with no internal owner. Sponsors read this section closely because they have funded that outcome before.
A single hourly or daily rate charged for all staff regardless of seniority, calculated from an expected team mix.
Simpler to quote and harder to audit than a role-based rate card. Procurement teams often reject blended rates because they cannot verify the mix that was actually delivered.
A written agreement altering the scope, price or timeline of an existing statement of work, signed by both parties.
A statement of work without a change-order clause has no mechanism for handling scope growth other than renegotiating the whole agreement.
The middle section of an SCR-framed business case: the specific, quantified obstacle preventing the client from reaching a stated goal.
The complication carries the argument. A complication stated qualitatively — “the team is struggling with consistency” — cannot be weighed against a fee, so the proposal has nothing to be judged against.
A specific artefact handed to the client: a document, a configured system, a training program, a dataset. Distinct from an activity.
“Interview stakeholders” is an activity. “Stakeholder map with decision-authority annotations” is a deliverable. Only deliverables can be accepted or rejected, which is why acceptance criteria attach to them.
The structured conversation in which a prospective client describes their current state, constraints and goals before any proposal is written.
A well-run discovery call contains almost every fact the eventual proposal needs. The usual failure is not the call but the week that passes before anyone writes it up.
Work explicitly stated as not included. Exclusions exist to prevent reasonable but unstated expectations, particularly around licences, third-party costs and travel.
A pricing model where the supplier commits to a total price for a defined scope, carrying the risk of overrun.
Fixed fees are usually quoted at a premium over estimated cost, because the supplier is selling certainty as well as work. They depend entirely on the assumptions section holding.
A taxonomy of the disciplines through which a business acquires and retains revenue — typically market strategy, demand generation, sales process, enablement, revenue operations and leadership.
Mapping each proposed workstream to a named discipline makes scope easier to sequence, price and defend, because it shows the engagement covers a system rather than a list of favours.
The umbrella contract setting the legal terms — liability, IP ownership, confidentiality, payment terms — under which one or more statements of work operate.
The MSA is signed once. Each subsequent engagement is a statement of work referencing it, which is why a second project with the same client moves considerably faster.
A published schedule of hourly or daily rates by role and seniority, from which engagement pricing is calculated.
Role-based cards survive procurement review more reliably than blended rates because the delivered mix can be checked against what was quoted.
A statement, attached to each workstream, of what happens to the business if that specific piece of scope is not undertaken.
Its function is commercial rather than rhetorical. Without it, removing scope is a discount conversation. With it, removing scope becomes a decision the client makes with the consequence recorded beside it — typically in a descoped ledger they sign against.
Incremental expansion of work beyond the agreed scope without a corresponding change to price or timeline.
Usually a documentation failure rather than a client failure: scope stated as activities rather than deliverables has no boundary to cross.
A problem-framed business case structure, associated with McKinsey. It establishes context, names a quantified obstacle, then proposes the specific remedy.
SCR suits a sponsor or investment committee audience, who are evaluating risk and are persuaded by a cost of inaction. Compare with SOR, which suits an operating audience.
An opportunity-framed business case structure. It establishes context, frames the upside against an industry benchmark, then proposes the engagement that captures it.
SOR suits an operating team who already accept the problem and want to know what good looks like. The same discovery evidence supports either frame; the choice is about the room.
The opening section of an SOR or SCR: current-state context establishing that the author understands the business, before any problem or opportunity is named.
A useful test — delete every bullet a competitor could have written from the company website. What remains is the actual discovery.
The private equity firm holding the investment, or the executive who owns the budget and the outcome internally.
Sponsors evaluate a proposal against an investment thesis rather than against a departmental need, which is why naming that thesis explicitly changes how the document reads.
The contractual document defining what will be delivered, by when, at what price, and on what assumptions. It typically operates under a master services agreement.
A statement of work differs from a scope of work: the scope is one section within it. The statement also carries timeline, commercials, acceptance criteria, assumptions and exclusions.
A grouping of related tasks within an engagement, scoped and priced as a unit so it can be included or removed independently.
A well-formed workstream carries six things: scope, impact, deliverables, options, risk of inaction and an adoption plan. Anything missing one of those is a service line rather than a workstream.
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The worked example builds a statement of work from a discovery call, with every section this glossary describes.