How to Scope Work for Sprints
Some agencies are moving towards sprint-based pricing—an approach where work is structured into defined time blocks. It’s predictable, keeps teams focused, and helps clients feel in control of their budget. But there’s one big challenge: scope creep.
But without a clear scope, sprints can quickly turn into marathons of unpaid work, with additional requirements slipping through and causing revenue loss too. To make this work, agencies need a structured approach to defining and managing scope.
Why Sprints Are Replacing Billable Hours
Hourly billing has its place, but many agencies are moving towards sprint-based pricing for more predictable costs and better workflow management. Sprint-based pricing solves this by offering:
? Clear deliverables – Clients know what they’re getting upfront.
? Focused execution – No more clock-watching or chasing timesheets.
? Less scope creep – Work is structured, making it easier to manage changes.
? Happier clients – Transparent costs mean no billing surprises.
But for sprints to work profitably, agencies need a way to define and control scope—without killing flexibility. Scopey isn’t a project management tool; it’s purely client-facing. It ensures clear agreements with clients and integrates with project management tools like Asana, ClickUp, Linear, and Jira to send approved tasks directly to the team.
Here's How to Keep Sprints Short, Sharp, and Valuable for You and Your Client
Sprint-based pricing needs clear agreements to avoid scope creep and unpaid work, but that doesn’t mean it has to be rigid. Scopey ensures teams start with a well-defined scope while allowing room for sprints to evolve and adapt as needed. This keeps work structured and manageable, while still giving clients and teams flexibility to make adjustments along the way.
1. Define Sprint Scope in Minutes
Instead of starting from scratch, Scopey lets teams quickly build structured scopes using:
?? Example: A digital agency offering a two-week sprint for website redesign can define:
? Included: Homepage redesign, new navigation, performance optimization.
? Not included: Branding, additional pages, or SEO work.
This upfront clarity prevents surprises (and unpaid extras) later.
2. Offer Optional Add-Ons (Instead of Free Work)
Scopey’s optional feature lets agencies present new requests as paid options instead of absorbing them into the sprint.
?? Clients see effort & cost upfront before deciding.
?? No awkward ‘No’s—just “Here’s how much it’ll cost.”
?? Faster decisions—pricing forces prioritization.
?? Example: A client asks for custom animations during a sprint. Scopey allows the agency to:
? Quote the cost to add it now.
? Cost it and suggest it for the next sprint.
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? Let the client decide based on budget.
?? Another Example: In an Ecommerce Website Optimisation Sprint, Scopey suggested optional features like:
By pricing these as add-ons, agencies get paid for extra work instead of absorbing it.
3. Capture Mid-Sprint Changes Without Derailing Work
Traditional Scrum suggests avoiding mid-sprint changes, but agencies don’t always have that luxury. Clients often introduce new requests, and without a structured way to manage them, sprints can get messy. Instead of automatically rejecting changes or absorbing them for free, Scopey helps capture, review, and price them fairly. Clients always come up with new ideas mid-sprint. Instead of disrupting the workflow, Scopey captures change requests directly from email and presents them in a dashboard for review.
These can either:
?? Be added to the scope (if within sprint capacity).
?? Be quoted for client approval (if out of scope).
?? Example: A client suddenly requests a “quick SEO audit” during a web design sprint. Scopey flags this as out of scope, giving the agency two choices:
? Quote it for approval before adding it to the sprint.
? Let the client know it can be scheduled for the next sprint.
This ensures agencies never take on extra work without getting paid.
4. Keep Clients Aligned (and Avoid Budget Surprises)
Scopey provides full visibility into:
This keeps projects transparent, ensuring clients feel in control while agencies stay profitable.
Sprint Smarter with Scopey
Agencies using sprints need a way to protect scope, prevent free work, and upsell effectively. Scopey is not a project management tool—it's purely client-facing. The magic of Scopey is that it integrates with project management tools like Asana, ClickUp, Linear, and Jira to send approved tasks to your team. Instead of managing projects, Scopey ensures clear agreements with clients, keeping scope and budget aligned before work even reaches the team.
Scopey helps by:
?? Defining sprint work in minutes.
?? Turning new requests into paid add-ons.
?? Capturing scope changes in real-time.
?? Keeping clients aligned on scope & budget.
?? How does your team handle sprint scoping? Drop your thoughts in the comments!
Jenna Farrell is the co-founder of Scopey, helping agencies scope projects with clarity, capture changes effortlessly, and keep clients aligned. Want to see how it works? Message me to book a demo!
I couldn't agree more. Having a defined process and the time allocated for Sprint 0: a team-built, client-aligned project, and sprint planning, is crucial to making the sprint-based pricing model work. Scopey presents this scope in a visually easy-to-understand and transparent way to make signoff easy and scope changes an easy conversation.