SOWGuard: Contract-Aware Scope Engine for ERP Programs
10/10
Demand Score
ERP scope creep quickly burns millions and poisons vendor relationships; a contract-aware guardrail is needed before the next sprint.
9/10
Blue Ocean
Competition Level
$2k-6k
Price/Month
Predicted customer spend
8 days
Time to MVP
Difficulty: Hard
The Problem
Scope Creep and Unclear Project Objectives:
Competitor Landscape
- ScopeMaster
- Jira Align
- Smartsheet Control Center
- ServiceNow SPM
- SAP Activate templates
- Wrike Resource Management
Must-Have Features for MVP
SOW/contract parser with clause-to-backlog mapping
Objective clarity checker with forced acceptance criteria
Automatic scope drift quarantine and change-order creation
Real-time cost/schedule impact calculator
Slack/Teams approvals with audit trail
Bidirectional sync with Jira/Azure DevOps/ServiceNow
Executive objective scorecards and earned value vs. SOW
⚠️ Potential Challenges
- Parsing varied SOW formats accurately
- Vendor and SI pushback on automated scope quarantines
- Integration complexity with multiple PM/ALM tools
- Change management for stricter approval workflows
Risk Level: Moderate
🎯 Keys to Success
- ≥20% reduction in out-of-scope hours within 30 days
- >90% of backlog items mapped to an objective and clause
- Faster change-order cycle time (<48 hours)
- Positive adoption from PMO and SI due to reduced disputes
Ready to Build This?
This hard-difficulty project could be your next micro-SaaS success.