Estimation Flow | Sales & PM

Overview

Estimating project requirements is a pivotal step that demands meticulous attention and a comprehensive understanding.

This guide aims to streamline the estimation process for the sales team, fostering a collaborative environment and ensuring a smooth transition from customer interaction to detailed project planning.

Estimation Workflow

Tech questions

This is a more detailed question from the potential client when they are not ready/do not need the estimation. In this case, the Sales manager should create a Jira ticket with the ‘Request type’ – Tech question in the Estimation Board in Jira.
The Sales manager is free to assign the relevant Team Lead if they are sure about the type of task and stack for it. If not, they can assign a PMO to the ticket, and the PMO will assign the right person.

Interaction with the customer

When communicating with a potential client, the Sales manager completes the brief.
The sales manager creates a new ticket on the Jira board, shares the details about the client’s request by filling the template in the Jira Ticket, and adds a Due Date.

PMO Assignment

The sales manager contacts the PMO to assign a PM to the project.

The PMO creates a new project in Jira for the estimation, and based on project requirements and available resources the PMO assigns a PM to prepare the estimate.

The PM creates the ticket for estimation in the new project, and assigns developers and a QA to the ticket afterward.
Also, the PM should drag the Jira ticket on Estimation board to the ‘In Progress’ column when the team is assigned.

Estimation

PM, developers, and QA review the incoming documentation and prepare the estimation based on the high-level aspects, main functions, and epics.

While the estimation time and progress is mainly tracked on the Project’s board, the PM should also make sure that the ticket on the Estimation board is up-to-date:

1. According to the stages of the estimation process, PM should drag the ticket into the respective columns on the board.

2. If there are any additional questions or requests from any side, they should be communicated ONLY in the comments of the ticket in Jira, so that the process is transparent to the team and management.

3. When the estimate is done, the PM should attach a ready document to the ticket in Jira.

4. The estimation should be approved with the team leads first, and the last step of approval process is review by the PMO.

5. When the estimate is approved, the PMO drags the ticket to ‘Ready to send’ column and notifies the Sales manager.

Customer Agreement

Sales manager sends the estimation to the client and drags the ticket to ‘Sent to client’ column.

Negotiations

After the estimation is sent to the client, the Sales manager is responsible to collect their feedback and move with the further steps.

1. If there are any changes to the client’s request or additional services requested, the Sales manager should move the Jira ticket to ‘In progress’ column, add the potential client’s feedback and update the Due Date for improving the estimate.

2. If the estimation is rejected by the client, the Sales manager should communicate their decision with the team, and add the rejection reason to the comment section of the ticket in Jira. The tickets moves to Rejected by client column.

3. If the estimation is approved by the client, the Sales manager should communicate their decision with the PM, and move the ticket to Approved by client column. The projects itself goes into discovery stage.

Discovery

Once the project is approved by client, the PM should start working on the planning and setting up the base for the project. The PM should collect the following info from the Sales Manager:

• Billing info

  • Client’s legal name (Name of the legal entity we sign the contract with)

  • Client’s legal address and zipcode

  • Client’s contact person – their name and email address

• Legal aspects – type of the contract, invoicing currency and hourly rate.

• Technical aspects – if are not collected on the estimation stage.

After that PM develops detailed plans, considering communication, planning, and environmental factors.