Every time we explain our fixed-scope model, someone in the room says "but that's just waterfall." It's not. Here's the difference, and why it matters.
Waterfall: spec everything, then build for a year
Classic waterfall locks in a 200-page requirements document, then disappears for 12 months while the team builds. By the time it ships, the market has moved, the requirements are stale, and nobody wants what was built.
Fixed scope: lock the outcome, not the implementation
What we lock is the outcome of a single 8–14 week phase: a working product, with a defined set of capabilities, on a defined date, for a defined price. How we get there is an iterative two-week sprint cycle with weekly demos and a shared backlog.
What this means in practice
- The client sees working software every Friday.
- Small adjustments inside scope are absorbed.
- Material changes get a written change order — the client decides whether to take the cost or defer the change to phase two.
- The team can't sandbag, because progress is visible weekly.
Why it's actually more agile, not less
True agile is about responding to change. Hourly billing pretends to be agile, but the incentives are warped. Fixed scope with weekly demos forces honest conversations about trade-offs — every Friday, in the open.