Halfway through an engagement, the client asks for more work, keeps the same deadline, and mentions that the success criteria have changed. "We can probably look at that too if you really need it" accepts everything and protects nothing.
This lesson uses a fictional engagement. It teaches the English for a scope conversation. Whether to accept the extra work is still your decision and your contract.
A scope answer has four parts, and each has an expression that does the job:
Fixed point → protected capacity → where room remains → criteria change, named
Name what will not move: non-negotiable
A point is non-negotiable when discussion will not change it.
"The steering-committee date is non-negotiable for this phase, but the order of the workstreams is open."
Use it only for a point that is genuinely fixed. It is stronger than important or essential, which can still be discussed. Add the scope ("for this phase") and name what is still open in the same sentence.
Bad: "The date is really important to us." Better: "The date is non-negotiable for this phase, but the sequence of the work is open."
Protect a share for the new request: carve out
To carve out capacity is to deliberately create and protect a share of time, people, or budget for one defined piece of work.
"We can carve out two weeks of analyst capacity for a supply-chain scan without touching the pricing timeline."
Use it when you are protecting a share against competing demands. It does not create capacity that is not there. As a hyphenated noun, a carve-out is a defined exclusion in a document, and the document decides what it means.
Bad: "We can probably squeeze the scan in somewhere." Better: "We can carve out two weeks of analyst capacity for the scan."
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See how Lyra Practice works →Say where a small adjustment is possible: wiggle room
Wiggle room is a limited amount of room to adjust inside a constraint.
"There's some wiggle room on the interim review date, but not on the final one."
Use it for a small, specific adjustment near a deadline, a price, or a scope line. It is not general flexibility, and it is not an approval. It is a spoken expression; in a formal statement of work, use the exact terms.
Bad: "We are flexible on the dates." Better: "There's some wiggle room on the interim review, not on the final date."
Name the change in criteria: move the goalposts
The goalposts move when the agreed success criteria change after the work has started.
"On the pricing model, the goalposts have moved since week one. Let's write down both versions of the criteria before we re-plan."
Use it for a change to something that was already agreed. A documented scope change that both sides agreed is not moving the goalposts. Name the old criteria and the new criteria instead of a motive; "the goalposts have moved" describes the change without describing the person.
Bad: "You keep changing what you want from us." Better: "The goalposts have moved since week one: the model needed to pass the volume test, and now it needs to pass the margin test. Let's write both down."
Nuance: fixed, protected, flexible, changed
- Non-negotiable is the point that will not move. Name what is still open next to it.
- Carve out is the share you protect for one piece of work. It is adjacent to wiggle room, not the same: carving out capacity is an action; wiggle room is the room that already exists inside a limit.
- Wiggle room is the small adjustment still available. It is informal; a statement of work needs exact terms.
- Move the goalposts names a midstream change to agreed criteria. Scope creep is gradual, uncontrolled growth; a scope change is documented and agreed; raise the bar sets a higher standard for the future.
Dialogue
A fictional sponsor and consultant, mid-engagement:
Sponsor: Can you add the supply-chain scan and still present on the twentieth?
Consultant: The steering-committee date is non-negotiable for this phase, but the order of the workstreams is open. We can carve out two weeks of analyst capacity for a supply-chain scan without touching the pricing timeline.
Sponsor: What about the interim review? Could that slip a few days?
Consultant: There's some wiggle room on the interim review, not on the final date.
Sponsor: And the pricing model needs to pass the new margin test now, not the volume test.
Consultant: Then the goalposts have moved since week one. Let's write down both versions of the criteria before we re-plan the work.
Put together:
"The steering-committee date is non-negotiable for this phase, but the sequence of the workstreams is open. We can carve out two weeks of analyst capacity for a supply-chain scan without touching the pricing timeline. There's some wiggle room on the interim review, not on the final date. On the pricing model, the goalposts have moved since week one, so let's write down both versions of the criteria before we re-plan."
Scenario
A different fictional client asks you to add a second business unit to a cost review, keep the board date, and change how savings will be counted, from annual run-rate to in-year cash. The board date cannot move. You can protect one analyst for three weeks for the second unit. The mid-point review could move by a week. The savings definition was agreed in the kickoff document.
Your turn. Answer in four sentences: the fixed point, the capacity you can protect, where there is room, and the criteria change named neutrally.
Quiz
The client signed a change request last week that added a second region to the review. Today they mention the new region again. Which sentence describes the situation precisely?
- "The goalposts have moved; we agreed one region and now it is two."
- "That was a documented scope change we both signed; it is already in the plan."
- "There is some wiggle room on the second region."
Answer: 2. A documented, agreed scope change is not moving the goalposts. Sentence 1 applies the idiom to a change both sides agreed. Sentence 3 uses wiggle room for a whole workstream, not for a small adjustment inside a limit.
Practice
Practice all four expressions in realistic scope scenarios at Lyra Practice.
Return to English for Consultants for readouts, qualified recommendations, and pushback.