The more your clients understand the cost of features, the less likely they are to ask for things that don’t support their business objectives. Start big, end small.

via cognition.happycog.com

This is something I have just been bitten by on a recent project.

It’s Project Management 101 to clearly define what the functionality and expected features of project are, but if you don’t nail these up front you’re fighting a losing battle during implementation.

As Dave mentions the key is to get the client to invest in the actuality of what the feature means and an understanding of the weight of investment to deploy it.