What is the Scoping Process?
The Scoping Process is a detailed analysis between your team and a potential vendor.
It’s where:
- You define your technical landscape
- You map your functional needs
- They show you what’s built, what’s not, and what’s possible
- And together, you uncover where the gaps are — with a plan for how to address them
Why Scoping matters so much
Scoping is the time to get honest about complexity. Where you flag the edge cases. Where the difference between “we can support that” and “here’s exactly how we’ll support that” becomes clear.
Scoping gives you:
- A space to define expectations before contracts are signed
- The opportunity to build shared understanding between your team and the vendor’s team
- A real-world assessment of how well the platform fits your current systems, workflows, and use cases
- Early visibility into what may need extra budget, development time, or change management
It’s also your chance to involve new internal voices — the people who will be most impacted by configuration, data, and day-to-day operations. Because the cost of guessing now is far higher than the cost of collaborating well upfront.
What gets covered in Scoping
Scoping covers the real-world complexity your digital banking platform needs to handle. This includes:
- Core systems and third-party integrations
- Functionality gaps that may require custom development
- Security, permissioning, and admin controls
- Retail and business banking features
- Special handling for account opening, card features, or niche services
Each of these elements is captured, discussed, and reviewed — so both teams know what’s in Scope, out of Scope, and still needs a plan.
What Scoping meetings look like
Scoping isn’t a one-sided checklist.
It’s a working session.
- Your team brings context: system diagrams, workflows, and known needs
- The vendor brings their product leads, sales engineers, or solutions consultants
- Together, you walk through the workbook, line by line
- And you identify anything that will require additional time, budget, or configuration
This is also your chance to demo your current platform, so the vendor understands what must be preserved in the future.
At the end of the meeting, you’ll leave with:
- A completed version of your scoping workbook
- A vendor response on capability fit and gaps
- Items that may need to be included in your contract or MSA later
Ready to Scope with confidence?
This workbook was built to help you lead productive, focused scoping conversations with your finalist vendors.
In it, you’ll find:
- A ready-to-use template to document every integration, feature, and workflow
- Pre-built sections for retail and business banking requirements
- A tracking table for enhancements, out-of-scope items, and custom development
- Fields to assign ownership, flag open questions, and prep for MSA or SOW inclusion
Grab the workbook. Prep your team. Sit down with your finalists.
And make sure what looks good on paper actually works in practice.
