How we scope and quote a fixed-price engineering project

Most of the risk in an engineering project is decided before any code is written: in what was assumed, what was left vague and what nobody priced. This is the process we run on every brief so the quote you receive is one we can keep.

1. Read the brief, then ask the awkward questions

An engineer reads your brief the day it arrives. Before the call we write down the open questions: which silicon, which Android or kernel version, what you already have (schematics, a vendor BSP, a codebase, a sample unit), what 'done' looks like, and which constraints are fixed (certification, launch date, unit cost).

2. A 30-minute scoping call

The call is free and it is with the engineer who will do the work, not a salesperson. We confirm scope, surface the unknowns and agree what is in and out. If the job needs a feasibility spike before anyone can quote it honestly, we say so and quote the spike on its own.

3. Milestones, not a lump sum

• Each milestone has a deliverable you can test, a price and a date.
• The first milestone is deliberately small, usually two weeks, so you can judge us before committing further.
• Each phase is approved separately. You can stop or change direction at any milestone and pay only for work done.

4. What the quote contains

• Scope and explicit exclusions
• Milestones with deliverables, acceptance criteria, prices and dates
• What we need from you and by when (hardware, accounts, access)
• Third-party costs you pay directly (fabs, components, cloud, app-store accounts)
• Ownership: code, design files and documentation transfer to you on payment of each milestone

5. During delivery

You get a short demo every week and a written update. Scope changes are quoted before they start, never discovered on the invoice. At each milestone you review, we fix anything that deviates from the acceptance criteria, and only then do we invoice.

If you want to see how this looks in practice, send a brief. The reply is a list of questions and a proposed first milestone, not a brochure.