Comment by austin-cheney

The answer to everything is contracts. As far as requirements gathering:

1. Bill the clients for every requirements meeting. Time is money.

2. It’s up to the client to know what they want and up to you to build it. Time spent fantasizing out loud isn’t productive. Build a prototype, and bill them for the time. If it’s not what they want they can either build their own prototype or refine their guidance. Either way it’s time they are paying for just the same.

As for scope creep you can handle that one of two ways:

1. Add a change annex to the current contract. This means you will complete the PWS of the base contract first and then bolt the change on at the end as a refactor.

2. Amend the current contract to include additional features. Don’t do this.

In the end it’s all about the product work statement. You should think about goal completion only in terms: business objectives (data/money), visual/vanity, regulatory conformance, and extras.