The implementation scope should be narrower and more concrete than the diagnostic recommendation.
Start with the business outcome
Define what should improve, for example:
- reduce proposal drafting time;
- eliminate duplicate CRM entry;
- shorten ticket triage time;
- reduce invoice-processing exceptions.
Define the production boundary
Specify:
- users and teams;
- workflow start and end;
- systems involved;
- inputs and outputs;
- environments;
- integrations;
- human approvals;
- data requirements;
- security constraints.
Define acceptance criteria
Good criteria are observable.
Examples:
- approved data is transferred into the CRM without manual re-entry for the defined case types;
- generated drafts contain all required fields and require named human approval before release;
- exception cases are routed to a defined queue;
- agreed audit events are recorded.
Identify dependencies before pricing
Check:
- client access and credentials;
- APIs and vendor limitations;
- data quality;
- security approval;
- process ownership;
- testing availability;
- training and rollout.
Separate discovery from build
If the technical design is still uncertain, use a short paid design phase rather than pretending the full implementation can be fixed-price with no discovery.
Do not absorb material production design, data remediation or change management into the original diagnostic unless it was explicitly included.
