- If I indicate “search” capabilities in a scope document, some clients can have expectations about how search should function and perform that may not be realistic. How much detail do you go in to about specific features? How do you find the balance between too much detail vs being too vague.

- How do you define, in your scope documents, when a project is “complete” and how do you balance being assertive vs. being adversarial when it comes to handling items that are “out of scope”?

- How do you protect yourself from delays caused by the client or, even worse, an incorrect assumption being made in the estimation process?

All pretty bit questions I’ve been struggling with lately. All the more reason to work on a time and materials basis I guess!

Take a look at our maintenance contract template that we released a few weeks ago. There should be some good legalese you can use.

http://www.myintervals.com/blog/2009/02/10/steal-this-web-design-and-development-time-and-materials-maintenance-contract-template/