Putting a Stop to 'Do the Extra Work, Get Nothing for It'
With the amendment to Korea's Software Promotion Act passing the National Assembly, one of the longest-standing problems in public-sector software projects — payment for scope changes — has finally moved into the realm of enforceable rules. Three points matter most.
In practice, the third point carries the most weight. Until now, reviews were held but adjustments to the contract value routinely collapsed under a single sentence: 'there is no budget for it.'
Why Scope Changes Always Turn Into Disputes
In software, it is normal — not exceptional — for requirements to remain unsettled at kickoff. Stakeholders only realize what needs to change once they see a working screen, and privacy or security review findings often land well into the build phase.
The real problem is the contract structure. Fixed-price contracts and variable requirements were never compatible to begin with. If requirements grow by 10% while the contract value stays flat, the extra effort gets absorbed through the vendor's overtime or shows up as degraded quality. Repeat that loss a few times and vendors start padding bids defensively, buyers push prices back down, and the cycle hardens.
What Buyers Should Prepare
What Vendors Should Prepare
Lessons for Private-Sector Projects
Public-sector rules set the baseline for private contracting norms. Once paid scope changes become standard in government projects, the claim that 'changes are free' becomes much harder to defend in private deals.
The deeper question is the contract model itself. If your project is change-heavy, it is time to reconsider fixed-price, fixed-scope contracting altogether. Where change is a constant rather than an exception, fixing the *capacity* you engage and keeping scope flexible serves both parties better than fixing scope and resolving the gap through disputes. That is precisely why a monthly dedicated-team model removes scope-change conflict structurally.
The POLYGLOTSOFT Approach
POLYGLOTSOFT's subscription development is a monthly dedicated-team model. When a feature addition or revision comes up, it is absorbed into the next development cycle without a separate contract negotiation, so there is no need to exchange fresh quotes every time something changes. Before kickoff we build the requirements document together to align on scope, and during delivery we share phases, milestones, and deliverables transparently through a project dashboard.
Plans run from Basic at KRW 290,000 per month up to Team at KRW 2,390,000 per month, and after delivery you can continue operations on a maintenance (SM) plan starting at KRW 90,000 per month. Code ownership belongs 100% to the client. If you are preparing a project where changes are likely to be frequent, send us your requirements document — we will review it and reply with a suitable plan and timeline.