Independent Estimation
An honest, independent estimate of what your product really costs to build — a defensible starting point for budgeting and choosing a vendor.
Committing to a build budget with no independent view of the real cost and effort — at the mercy of whoever's quoting, with no way to tell if you're on track.
An Independent Estimation is a service in which our team calculates the true cost and effort to build your product. We have no stake in winning the delivery work and no interest in time utilisation, so we look for the best development path rather than the longest one. Companies use it to check whether their development efforts are on track, to understand how much money they'll actually need, and — because we never over- or under-estimate on purpose — to get a defensible starting point for finding a vendor.
- A defensible cost and effort figure from a party with no stake in the build.
- The best development path, not the one that bills the most hours.
- A clear view of whether your effort and budget are on track.
- A neutral starting point for negotiating with vendors.
A bounded, phased engagement. Each bar below is proportional to its estimated duration on a shared calendar.
Requirements-gathering and Q&A sessions to understand the product.
Build the WBS and map the best development path.
Deliver cost, effort, phases, timeline and team setup.
Concrete artefacts you keep — delivered in editable, open formats your team owns.
Work Breakdown Structure
The build decomposed into estimable pieces.
WBSCompleted Estimate
Cost and effort with recommended team setup and phases.
EstimateProject Timeline
Phases, timeline and infrastructure costs.
Plan
The edges of this engagement, and what we’ll need from you to run it.
- Delivering the build we estimate.
- A binding fixed-price quote for construction.
- Vendor selection or contract negotiation.
- Detailed low-level design (that's Architecture Design).
- A description of the product and its goals.
- Availability for requirements-gathering and Q&A sessions.
- Any existing scope, designs or constraints.
- The complexity or scale you're targeting.
Fixed-scope and outcome-priced — one agreed figure for a defined set of deliverables, with no hourly billing.
Total — Small $3,500 to Large $7,400 by complexity.
- Fixed scope, agreed before we start — no open-ended hourly billing.
- One figure covers the full set of deliverables listed alongside.
- The number only moves with system complexity, and only by agreement.
- Work Breakdown Structure
- Completed Estimate
- Project Timeline
Answers to the questions we hear most about this engagement.
Why an independent estimate?
Because we don't win the build, we have no incentive to over- or under-estimate — you get an honest number to budget and negotiate against.
What do I get?
A work breakdown structure, a completed estimate with recommended team setup, project phases, a timeline and infrastructure costs.
Is it a fixed-price quote?
No — it's an independent estimate to plan and benchmark against. A vendor's binding quote is a separate step.
How does it relate to Architecture Design (RE-002)?
An architecture makes the estimate far more accurate; many clients run RE-002 first, then estimate against it.