I think this depends on the scope/size of project.
In a previous role, I worked at a product-led consultancy in a niche industry which delivered multi-year + multi-phase projects. These were projects were delivered (on our side) on a time and materials basis, and could easily get into the tens of millions in fees.
There would typically be a 'requirements gathering' phase of the project where we held business workshops, where the output was a more concrete project estimate with potential timelines.
This is what would go into the signoff/contract of the project-proper. At this point the client could in theory walk away, with the documents we had produced as part of that phase. Think business process diagrams etc.
The client would pay for the requirements gathering, although I suspect like everything, there would have been discussion about how long it should be/how much it should cost up-front. The projects we had all had a similar phase, simply because it was very hard to know how much there was to do (on both sides) without detailed discussions about what their existing business looked like.
In a previous role, I worked at a product-led consultancy in a niche industry which delivered multi-year + multi-phase projects. These were projects were delivered (on our side) on a time and materials basis, and could easily get into the tens of millions in fees.
There would typically be a 'requirements gathering' phase of the project where we held business workshops, where the output was a more concrete project estimate with potential timelines.
This is what would go into the signoff/contract of the project-proper. At this point the client could in theory walk away, with the documents we had produced as part of that phase. Think business process diagrams etc.
The client would pay for the requirements gathering, although I suspect like everything, there would have been discussion about how long it should be/how much it should cost up-front. The projects we had all had a similar phase, simply because it was very hard to know how much there was to do (on both sides) without detailed discussions about what their existing business looked like.