The client asks for “just one more thing.” At first, it seems small. Consequently, the project lead says yes because saying no feels awkward and they don’t want to seem difficult.
However, two weeks later, the project is over scope and over budget, yet the client has no idea anything went wrong. In fact, they think they got everything they asked for because nobody told them otherwise. As a result, everyone is frustrated and nobody can pinpoint who made the call to approve the extra work.
Ultimately, this pattern plays out constantly when escalation rules don’t exist.
To be fair, scope changes happen, deadlines get tight, and quality slips through. These issues are inevitable in services delivery; therefore, they are not the true failure point. Instead, the real failure point occurs when your team doesn’t have a defined path for what to do the moment one of these events surfaces.
For this reason, you need a framework that answers four specific questions for every category of deviation.
Once you have them, write the answers down, publish them, and train your team on them.
For instance, for scope changes, define the dollar or hour threshold that triggers approval.
Next, state clearly who approves it and decide whether the client gets informed before or after that approval.
Finally, assign who documents the change and adjusts the project plan.
Similarly, for deadline risks, pick a clear escalation trigger.
Does the team raise the flag when they suspect a slip is likely, or do they wait until it has already happened? Furthermore, clarify who decides between absorbing the slip, extending the deadline, or adding resources.
When it comes to quality slips, you must spell it out. For example, when a deliverable fails the first review, who decides whether to rework or release it? In addition, at what exact point does the client need to be brought in?
Likewise, for budget overruns, set a strict percentage threshold. At what coverage does the project lead lose independent spending authority? Moreover, who reviews the burn rate and determines the path forward?
Here’s the test for your team this week: grab the last three projects that went sideways on scope or budget. Trace every decision point backward and ask, would our escalation rules have caught this at the right moment? If the answer is no, then you know exactly where to build guardrails.
On the other hand, here’s the reframe that tends to make owners uncomfortable: treating escalation rules as bureaucracy is actually an excuse for keeping decision-making power concentrated at the top. You call it nimble, but what you’re really doing is creating a bottleneck where every small decision floats upward through informal channels. Consequently, it gets resolved by whoever happens to be available, which doesn’t protect quality it creates chaos.
In fact, the BOI System scores this at Deliver Team Level 3. The difference is stark between businesses with documented escalation discipline and those where every tricky decision becomes a hallway conversation.
Ultimately, clear escalation rules don’t reduce authority; rather, they clarify it.
To leave you with two final lines: escalation exists so your people can move faster, not so you can approve more things. Therefore, get the rules down and get out of their way.
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