A good answer should expose assumptions before giving a duration or fee. Ask for a dependency-based plan rather than a generic enterprise GRC implementation benchmark.
Why it matters to buyers. IBM’s migration documentation explicitly distinguishes development, user-acceptance and production environments and requires matching versions and patch levels for the described environment migration. That is one concrete example of a technical prerequisite a delivery estimate must accommodate. (ibm.com)
Put it to: Michael Rasmussen, the proposed delivery lead and an independent programme owner.
A strong answer should cover: - The first accepted workflow, distinguished from technical installation and full programme completion. - Source-data condition, historical scope, integrations and permission design. - Buyer decision-making time, subject-matter expertise and control-owner availability. - Configuration versus custom development, including upgrade and support responsibilities. - Trial loads, business testing, cutover, rollback and post-launch support. - Assumptions that trigger a scope change, the decision owner and the pricing mechanism.
Ask for proof: a work breakdown with buyer and partner responsibilities, named dependencies and an acceptance deliverable for each milestone.
Have the expert distinguish elapsed time, partner effort and internal effort. Require the estimate to state which activities can overlap and which must finish first.
Follow-up: “What is excluded from this fixed fee, and which excluded activity could prevent the first workflow from going live?”
Expert quote — pending interview: [Insert approved quotation and attribution.]
Sources cited on this page
- ibm.com ↗www.ibm.com