Describe the first useful outcome

Choose a person and a task. For example, a field officer submits a visit report, a supervisor requests a correction, and the approved record appears in a monthly export. This gives a development team something concrete to scope and demonstrate.

For a startup MVP, identify what early use should teach you. Include the main customer journey and the admin tools needed to support it. A first release can be small while still handling errors and protecting account boundaries.

Identify the work behind each screen

An approval button raises questions: who can press it, what must be complete, can a decision be reversed, and who receives a notification? Existing data and external systems add their own requirements. Record these rules before treating estimates as comparable.

  • User roles, permissions, and account boundaries
  • Normal steps, returned work, and other exceptions
  • Data imports, cleanup, and migration checks
  • External APIs and failure handling
  • Reporting definitions and export formats
  • Deployment, support access, and monitoring

Make assumptions visible in the quote

Ask each team to state what is included, what is excluded, and what information is still needed. Specify who provides content and data, how many review rounds are planned, and how changes to the agreed scope are handled.

Recurring costs deserve their own line: hosting, external services, and ongoing support are different from the initial build. An AI feature may also introduce usage-based costs and evaluation work. Avoid comparing only the headline development amount.

Agree how you will accept the release

Use representative records and realistic scenarios to check the system. Define the expected result for the main workflow, an invalid submission, and a failed integration. Decide who signs off and what handover material is required.

Kabeli estimates custom software and MVP development after reviewing these requirements. Bring a sample form, current spreadsheet, or prototype, along with your priorities and constraints. We can use those to define the first release and a delivery plan.