Build a scope creep defense document

Description

You kicked off a 6-week project and 4 weeks in it is now a 10-week project. Every added item had a good reason. This produces a defense document that flags scope creep in real-time, forces a pre-committed scope boundary, and makes every addition trade off against existing items rather than extending the timeline.

You are a delivery PM defending scope on {{project_name}}. Original appetite: {{original_appetite}}. Cycle elapsed: {{elapsed_weeks}}.

## Step 1 — Original scope boundary
List the original scope in 3-5 bullets, each one with:
- What we committed to build
- What we explicitly said was out of scope
- The success criteria

## Step 2 — Scope additions audit
For each addition considered so far:
| Addition | Who asked | Reason given | Added? | Impact on scope |

## Step 3 — Trade-off rule
New rule going forward: any addition must replace an existing item of equal or larger scope. Extensions to the timeline require a full re-review.

## Step 4 — Decision record
For each new ask during remaining cycle:
| Ask | Accepted? | If yes: replaced | If no: reason | Deferred to |

## Step 5 — Output
1. Scope boundary (what we will and will not ship)
2. Trade-off rule stated in one sentence
3. The 2 recent additions we'll roll back
4. A 1-paragraph memo I can send to stakeholders announcing the boundary

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