Estimation Review Checklist

Coverage

• Every requirement captured in discovery maps to at least one estimate line, or to a stated exclusion.
• Every estimate line maps back to a requirement someone asked for.
• Discovery, analysis, and solution design effort is included, not absorbed.
• Testing effort is included: functional, integration, performance, and client acceptance support.
• Data migration, cleansing, and reconciliation are estimated separately from build.
• Deployment, cutover, and any parallel-run support are included.
• Documentation, training, and handover to the client's own team are included.
• Warranty, hypercare, or post-go-live support is either included or explicitly excluded.

Drivers and structure

• The quantities behind each line come from the client, not from an assumption you made silently.
• The two or three drivers that explain most of the effort are visible in the estimate.
• Phases mirror how you will actually deliver, so scope can be deferred cleanly.
• Roles and seniority mix are realistic for the work, not optimised for price.
• Repeatable elements are priced consistently with your other recent engagements.
• Where a rule or formula produced a number, the rule is stated and the adjustments are documented.

Hidden effort

The lines most often missing from services estimates.

• Project management, coordination, and reporting, as a visible line rather than a percentage buried in rates.
• Internal review and quality assurance of deliverables before they go to the client.
• Client review cycles: the meetings, the consolidation of feedback, the rework.
• Stakeholder management and steering group attendance.
• Environment setup, access provisioning, and waiting for it.
• Onboarding your own team, including any client-mandated training or security clearance.
• Third-party coordination with vendors, incumbents, or other suppliers.
• Travel time, where onsite presence is expected.

Risk and uncertainty

• Every open question is answered, converted into a stated assumption, or excluded.
• No line item is padded in place of an unresolved question.
• The estimate states where confidence is low and what would raise it.
• Contingency, if used, is explicit and attached to named risks rather than spread invisibly.
• You can answer: what would have to be true for this number to be wrong by half?
• Dependencies with an external owner are flagged, with the impact if they slip.

Commercial shape

• The pricing model fits the level of uncertainty; fixed fee on unresolved scope is a margin decision, not a courtesy.
• Blended or role rates match the delivery team you can actually staff.
• Expected margin is calculated on the estimate as it will be delivered, including non-billable coordination.
• Discounts, if any, remove scope or change terms rather than only reducing price.
• Payment milestones align to deliverables the client will accept.
• Licences, infrastructure, and pass-through costs are identified and their ownership stated.

Defensibility

• Each line can be explained in one sentence, in language the client used in discovery.
• Someone who was not in discovery can read the estimate and describe the engagement.
• The narrative document and the estimate describe the same scope, at the same version.
• If the budget were twenty percent smaller, you know what you would defer and the structure allows it.
• You are prepared for the three questions a sceptical buyer asks: why this much, why this long, and what happens if we do less.

After delivery: calibration

• Actual effort by phase and role is compared to the estimate.
• Variances are attributed to a cause: missing scope, wrong driver, client delay, or delivery execution.
• Change orders raised during delivery are reviewed for what discovery should have caught.
• Any driver that repeatedly explained variance becomes a candidate estimating rule.
• Rules that no longer reflect how you deliver are retired, not left in place.