A defensible estimate range connects each work package to a basis, assumption, dependency, and uncertainty instead of presenting precision unsupported by discovery.
Build the work breakdown from accepted scope
Decompose the selected option into deliverable-oriented work packages that can be estimated and accepted: integration contracts, data preparation, application behavior, identity, migration, testing, observability, deployment, documentation, and handoff. Include discovery findings that create non-code work. Keep optional capabilities separate so the buyer can see how each changes the range.
The GAO Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide treats a product-oriented work breakdown structure as a foundation for organizing scope and costs. For a smaller technical initiative, the same principle prevents missing work and double counting. Each package should identify inputs, output, owner, predecessor, acceptance evidence, and whether the estimate includes build, review, repair, and release.
Write the basis and uncertainty beside the number
For each package, record whether the basis comes from an analogous completed task, a measured spike, a vendor quote, team history, or expert judgment. State productivity and availability assumptions without converting them into promises. Identify integration, data, approval, and requirement uncertainty separately because they may change the shape of the work rather than only add hours.
Produce a range with a documented low and high case. The low case should describe favorable but credible conditions, while the high case includes named complications that remain within scope. Unknowns capable of changing architecture or scope should remain explicit holds, not disappear into a percentage. Record external fees and buyer work separately from vendor labor.
Make the estimate updateable
Give assumptions stable identifiers and link them to evidence and work packages. When a risk spike resolves an API question or the buyer changes an acceptance rule, update the affected range and preserve the prior version. A change log should show new evidence, changed assumption, scope effect, estimate effect, and accountable approval. This turns the estimate into a governed planning record.
Scope Ground prepares the range through Reality Contact, LLC. The buyer approves the option, assumptions, exclusions, team model, and acceptance scenarios before using it for an internal plan or statement of work. The range is conditional on the recorded evidence and does not guarantee budget or delivery timing after requirements, dependencies, access, or vendor terms change.
Where the service stops
Reality Contact, LLC performs bounded technical discovery and estimation but does not guarantee cost or delivery dates, provide legal or procurement advice, select vendors for the buyer, authorize a build, certify architecture or security, or control requirement and dependency changes after the dossier date. The accountable buyer resolves listed holds, selects or rejects an architecture option, approves assumptions and acceptance scenarios, and decides whether to authorize an internal plan, request a vendor statement of work, narrow the initiative, or stop. This technical discovery service does not replace the buyer's engineering, security, legal, procurement, finance, architecture, or production-readiness review. Estimate ranges remain conditional on the recorded option, assumptions, exclusions, access, dependencies, and acceptance scenarios.
Sources: GAO Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide; GOV.UK contracting guidance for agile digital work.