Stop Scope Creep: WhatsApp Chat to Change Log

Scope creep does not happen in a contract. It happens in WhatsApp.

"Can we just add one small thing?" arrives as a casual message at 9 PM. A voice note describes seven new requirements while calling them "minor tweaks." An emoji approval on a screenshot becomes the authorization for two extra weeks of work.

Then the invoice comes, and the client is surprised. Or worse, you deliver the extra work for free because you cannot point to the exact moment where the scope changed.

The fix is not complicated. It is a change log: a running document that tracks what was agreed, what changed, who approved the change, and what it means for timeline and cost.

Why WhatsApp makes scope creep worse

WhatsApp turns professional communication into a stream. That stream has properties that make scope management harder:

• Decisions are scattered across days and mixed with unrelated messages
• Changes are proposed casually ("hey, quick thought...") instead of formally
• Approvals happen with thumbs-up emojis or "sounds good" replies
• Voice notes bury new requirements inside 3-minute monologues
• Nobody goes back to update a scope document based on a WhatsApp exchange

The result is that both sides have a different understanding of what the project includes, and neither can prove it quickly.

Scope and change log template

Project header

• Client: [Name]
• Project: [Name]
• Original scope date: [When scope was first agreed]
• Log covers: [Start date] to [End date]

Confirmed scope (baseline)

• [Deliverable 1]
• [Deliverable 2]
• [Deliverable 3]

Explicitly out of scope