How we run two-week sprints with fixed-scope clients

Fixed scope and agile delivery are often presented as opposites. In practice, most of our clients want a price they can take to their board and a process that shows progress every fortnight. Here is how we reconcile the two.

Discovery produces the contract

A paid two-week discovery ends with a prioritised backlog, an architecture note and an estimate. The backlog is the scope. Anything added later is traded against something of equal size or quoted separately.

Every sprint has the same four artefacts

• A sprint goal written in the client's words, not ours.
• A burndown the client can open at any time.
• A recorded demo on the last day, with the release notes.
• A one-page risk register updated before planning.

Change is welcome, silence is not

Clients can reprioritise the backlog at every planning session. What they cannot do is discover a change at the final demo. The fortnightly rhythm exists to make surprises impossible, not to make change expensive.

The burndown is not a report card. It is the earliest honest conversation about scope you will ever have.