Change request
A formal ask to alter agreed work, with its cost and its effect on the timeline written down before anyone builds it.
Updated October 2026 · with examples from our own builds
What does change request mean in practice?
Change requests are a normal part of a healthy project. Founders learn things from the first demo that no document could have told them, and a good project has a simple route for acting on them: describe the change, estimate it, decide, then build. The paperwork can be a short message, as long as the estimate comes before the work.
What the process protects is the link between scope, price and date. When changes go straight into the build, that link breaks, and the final invoice becomes a surprise to one side or the other.
Some changes are cheap because the foundations were right; others touch the data model and ripple through everything. A new screen on existing data is usually small. A new rule about who may see a field rarely is, so ask which kind you are looking at.
Change request at a glance
- Typical trigger
- A walkthrough or demo of working screens
- What it needs
- A description, an estimate and a yes or no
- Hidden cost
- Changes that reach the data model
Where has change request come up in our builds?
Midway through the build the firm asked for something a marketing site doesn't do: private progress pages for its clients, behind a passcode. We added client report links and a separate field-crew update link, which gave each project three faces: the public page, the admin panel and the client report.
After walking through the nine-role prototype, QKE asked for four additions: revision history, spec visibility for the client, the supplied brand carried through stores, and a quotation email for Gmail. All four went in.
After the first build in March 2026, the designer asked for rounds of changes in March, May and July: layout and responsiveness fixes, a refreshed About page, and Monk's Pub images re-exported as WebP to keep their transparency.
Common questions about change request
How should a change request be priced?
Against the agreed scope: what is added, what is removed and what it does to the date. A small change on existing data is usually a quick estimate; one that adds a rule about who can see what needs the data model checked first.
When is the best time to ask for changes?
As soon as something clickable exists. A walkthrough of a prototype or the first working screens surfaces most changes while they are still cheap, which is why we show role-by-role prototypes before a full build.
Related terms
Planning a product and not sure where change request fits? Ask us, or browse all 116 terms in the glossary.