It’s not unusual to have a “discovery” phase in a contract. Since usually you won’t know the scope of work well enough before the discovery phase, it’s also not

It’s not unusual to have a “discovery” phase in a contract. Since usually you won’t know the scope of work well enough before the discovery phase, it’s also not out of the ordinary to wait until discovery is complete to add the statement of work and dollar amounts to the main contract - or to have separate discovery and implementation contracts. Note that the latter allows the client to take the work done in discovery and hire someone else to implement; but at least you get paid for the work done on discovery.