Project estimates
Before starting a project, it's reasonable to want a sense of what you're getting into. An Estimate gives you that: what the work would approximately cost and how long it would take, as a Low, Mid, and High range. This page explains what an estimate contains, how to read it, and why it can change.
We give you the best planning information we reasonably can with what's known today, and we're open about the fact that software contains uncertainty.
Why we estimate
- You deserve a sense of scale. Knowing whether a project is a modest addition or a major undertaking helps you decide whether and how to start.
- A range helps you plan. You can budget, decide what matters most, and choose what to build first, before and during discovery.
- Software contains uncertainty. A single precise number would suggest more certainty than anyone has before the work begins. An honest range is more useful than a false exact figure.
What an estimate looks like
Here is a fictional example. The project estimate at the top is the part most clients care about: Low, Mid, and High, with what the whole project would cost and how many weeks it would take on each block. Below it, each Focus shows what we currently expect to build, what we're assuming, and its own cost and weeks. Hover over or tap a size to see what it means.
A small home-services company replaces its phone-and-spreadsheet scheduling with an online portal.
Low if the work goes favorably, Mid as expected, High with reasonable extra complexity. At $7,000 a week on Dedicated, $3,750 on Core, and $2,000 on Flex. A planning estimate, not a quote.
Weeks assume one block of that type every week, one Focus at a time: more blocks a week shortens the timeline; fewer, or gaps between them, lengthen it.
Office staff and technicians sign in with their existing Microsoft 365 accounts.
- Only people in the company's Microsoft 365 organization can sign in.
- Assumes the company's Microsoft 365 tenant permits the required sign-in access.
Customers can request a service appointment online.
- Customers choose a service type and a preferred time window, and can cancel up to a day before.
- Customers cannot book outside the company's service hours.
- Assumes a short, fixed list of service types.
Dispatchers can assign technicians to scheduled service appointments.
- Dispatchers see each technician's day and week, and are warned before double-booking one.
- Technicians can see only their own assigned appointments.
- Assumes travel time between appointments doesn't need to be calculated.
Customers are kept informed about their appointments by email and text.
- A confirmation email when a request is received, and a reminder text the afternoon before.
- Assumes a standard SMS provider such as Twilio is fine.
Completed appointments become invoices in the company's accounting system.
- Marking an appointment complete creates a draft invoice in QuickBooks Online, and failed syncs are flagged.
- Assumes QuickBooks Online's API supports the company's invoice layout.
- Assumes existing customer records in QuickBooks don't need to be cleaned up or migrated.
- The portal is a web app that works well on phones; no app-store app is needed.
- The company's existing website only needs a link to the portal, not a redesign.
What an estimate contains
- Project: the broader outcome you want, such as "replace phone-and-spreadsheet scheduling with an online portal."
- Focuses: the pieces of work, each with a name you'd recognize and, where it helps, a short description. A Focus can be something new, such as Customer Scheduling: "Customers can request a service appointment online," or an improvement to software you already have, such as adding CSV export to your reports.
- Notes: short statements on a Focus or the whole project, such as "Customers cannot book outside the company's service hours." They outline what we currently understand the work to include, and the assumptions the estimate depends on, such as "Assumes a standard SMS provider is fine." They make uncertainty visible without a long specification.
- T-shirt sizes: each Focus is sized S, M, L, or XL based on how much capacity and uncertainty it carries. Sizes are intentionally coarse.
- Cost and weeks on every block: for each Focus and for the project, what it would cost and how many weeks it would take on Flex, Core, and Dedicated, at Low, Mid, and High. We don't pick a block for you; you see what each would mean. It's the same whoever will operate the software.
- Operations, if you'd like Exalynt to run the software: the price of an operations plan per month, quarter, and year once it's live.
The same work costs a little more on Flex and Core, which cost a little more per unit, but comes in smaller steps (details). Most clients mix block sizes along the way, so the final amount usually falls between the blocks' figures.
The weeks assume one block of that type every week, one Focus after another. Buying more than one block a week shortens the timeline; buying less often, or pausing between blocks, lengthens it.
An estimate keeps the prices it was made with. If Exalynt's block prices change afterward, your estimate doesn't.
What each size means
Each T-shirt size stands for a fixed range of capacity units, the same units blocks are measured in: Flex is 1 unit, Core is 2 units, and Dedicated is 4 units. Your estimate shows cost and weeks rather than units, but every figure on it comes from this mapping:
| Size | Capacity units | Often looks like | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low | Mid | High | ||
| S | 1 | 2 | 3 | Narrow, familiar behavior with few unknowns. |
| M | 3 | 4 | 6 | Clear behavior with some workflow, roles, or states to work through. |
| L | 6 | 8 | 12 | Broad behavior, several roles or states, or an integration with a system Exalynt doesn't control. |
| XL | 12 | 16 | 24 | Large or substantially uncertain. Usually a sign to split it into smaller Focuses. |
A Focus's cost on a block is its units at that block's price per unit, and its weeks are its units divided by the block's units. The project's figures are its Focuses' added together.
XL is the largest size, and usually a prompt to split. An XL spans 12–24 units (Mid 16). "Online Payments" covering deposits, card payments, refunds, payment history, and an accounting sync might be XL as one Focus. We'd usually split it into smaller Focuses you can prioritize separately. When an XL can't be split because too much is unknown, such as an integration with a partner's undocumented system, we say what would narrow it, often an early iteration that proves the hard part first.
How to read Low, Mid, and High
| Point | What it means |
|---|---|
| Low | The work goes favorably within the scope and assumptions as we currently understand them. |
| Mid | The work goes as expected, based on what we know today. |
| High | Reasonable additional complexity, edge cases, or uncertainty turns up while building the scope as it's currently described. |
None of the three is a guarantee. All three describe the scope and assumptions written in the estimate. If those change, we update the range with you.
A practical way to budget is to plan around Mid and make sure High would still work for you.
What an estimate is, and what it isn't
| An estimate is | It isn't |
|---|---|
| A planning range to help you budget and prioritize | A quote or fixed price |
| Our best professional judgment of the work as described today | A guaranteed final cost |
| A snapshot of the Focuses we currently imagine | A promise that they'll stay the same; seeing working software often changes your mind, and that's good |
| A sense of the size of the work and how long it could take | A deadline or delivery date |
Why an estimate can change
An estimate reflects what's known when it's written. It changes when we learn something that matters:
- New behavior. You decide a Focus should do more, or add a new one.
- Changed assumptions. Something we assumed turns out not to be true.
- Newly discovered constraints, technical, organizational, or regulatory.
- Changed priorities. Your business needs shift, and so does what's worth building.
- External limits. A third-party system behaves differently than expected or can't do what we need.
- Discovery. Building part of the project shows that what needs to be built is materially different.
Changes go both ways. Discovery sometimes reveals a simpler path, or that a Focus isn't needed at all. Either way, we tell you what changed and why, update the estimate, and you decide what to do next.
How Exalynt limits your risk
An estimate gives you orientation. It doesn't ask for a large upfront commitment.
- You still buy capacity one iteration at a time. You never purchase the whole estimate at once. See Working with Exalynt.
- You decide at every checkpoint. At the end of each iteration you see what was built and learned, and choose whether to continue, change direction, or stop.
- New information shapes the plan before you commit more. If priorities or the estimate change, you know before buying the next block.
- Each block's price is fixed. If work inside a block takes longer than planned, Exalynt absorbs it. See Sharing risk.
Curious how estimates are made? Exalynt engineers follow a shared process, described in Creating project estimates.
Frequently asked questions
Is an estimate a quote?
No. A quote commits to a fixed price for a fixed scope. An estimate is a planning range based on what's known today, and you still buy capacity one iteration at a time.
Do I have to buy the whole estimated project up front?
No. You buy one iteration at a time and decide at each checkpoint whether to continue. You can stop after any iteration and keep everything built so far.
Which number should I budget for?
Plan around Mid, what the work takes if it goes as expected, and make sure High would still be workable. Low is what the work could take if everything goes favorably.
What happens if the project starts heading past the estimate?
We tell you as soon as we see it, not at the end. Usually it means the scope or an assumption has changed, so we update the estimate and explain why. You then decide whether to continue, simplify, reprioritize, or stop.
Does an estimate tell me when the project will be finished?
Not as a date. It shows how many weeks the work would take on each block, buying one block of that type every week. How quickly the work actually goes depends on the blocks you choose each iteration and how often you buy them.
Which block should I choose?
You don't have to choose up front. The estimate shows every block so you can compare: Dedicated moves fastest and costs least per unit of work, while Flex and Core come in smaller steps. You pick a block one iteration at a time, and can change at any checkpoint. See Engineering Capacity.
Will my estimate change if Exalynt's prices change?
No. An estimate keeps the block prices it was made with. If the scope changes and we update it, it still uses those prices.