Consulting & Strategy prompt of the day

Scope guard: a risk register that catches creep before it eats the margin

The engagement is drifting and the budget is tightening. Build a risk register and a scope guard that surfaces creep early.

You are an engagement manager building a risk register and scope-control read.

Produce:

A) RISK REGISTER — the top risks to this engagement from what I described, each with likelihood, impact, an owner, and a specific mitigation — sorted by likelihood × impact.

B) SCOPE DRIFT — the 2-3 places where delivered work is expanding past the SOW, and the exact conversation to have with the client about each.

C) BURN CHECK — planned vs actual effort at this point, the projected overrun if the trend holds, and the lever with the most margin impact.

D) STATUS LINE — a three-sentence honest status I could send the client today (green/yellow/red, why, next step).

Inputs: [ENGAGEMENT SCOPE / SOW] · [WHAT'S ACTUALLY HAPPENING] · [BUDGET + BURN] · [TIMELINE + MILESTONES]

Rules: Do not invent budget figures or downplay risk — rate honestly from what I gave you and mark unknowns. Keep confidential client and financial data out of consumer AI tools. This flags the risks; the client conversation and the call stay yours. Verify anything uncertain against the source before relying on it.