Classified out of the recurring lane has to lead somewhere.
Migrations, redesigns, and remediation programs get excluded from the recurring rate on nearly every page of this site. This is where they go instead — a separately scoped project engagement, from the same delivery team, not a dead end.
What a project typically covers.
Useful when recurring demand keeps surfacing work that is really a one-time program, not an ongoing lane.
Platform migrations — mailbox and file migrations, tenant-to-tenant Microsoft 365 moves — infrastructure rollouts such as a new site's network build or a server refresh, remediation programs that clear inherited technical debt or a backlog of unresolved findings, and fleet-refresh programs that replace devices as a program rather than one at a time through the lifecycle lane.
A written close-out record: scope delivered, exceptions encountered, and what should carry into the recurring lane as the new baseline.
A defined scope statement, a named project owner on both sides, acceptance criteria agreed before work starts, and a separate estimate and schedule from the recurring rate.
Project work runs under the same ownership rules as everything else.
- Your practice still owns the contractNothing about a separate estimate changes who the client's agreement is actually with.
- Delivery still stops at the same safe pointsA project pauses and escalates the same way a routine request does — just against a project-specific decision owner.
- The difference is estimation and acceptanceNot who is accountable to the client when something goes wrong.
- A finished project can become the new baselineWhat it leaves behind may reset what the recurring lane maintains going forward.
Recurring lane versus project, by the same four questions.
| Estimation | Included in the reference rate, versus quoted separately before work starts. |
|---|---|
| Acceptance | Reviewed at the ongoing cadence, versus signed off at a defined close-out. |
| Schedule | Continuous with no end date, versus a start date and an end date. |
| What happens after | Nothing changes, versus possibly resetting what the recurring lane maintains, once accepted. |
Ask these before scoping a project.
- Is the scope statement specific enough that "done" is not a judgment call?Vague scope produces a vague close-out, and a vague close-out produces a dispute.
- Who signs the close-out, and what happens if they are unavailable when it is ready?Name a backup, not just a preferred approver.
- Does the estimate assume a clean environment, or account for inherited debt?Discovery work belongs in the estimate, not as a surprise mid-project.
- What happens to the recurring lane definition once the project lands?A migration that is not reflected back into the lane just creates the next exception.
Size the project against the lane it will change.
Capacity planning and the service catalog explain what the recurring lane is protecting by keeping this work separate.