Software Investment Reality Check

Stop gambling on software budgets.
Get audit-proof clarity on cost, timeline and risk — within 4 weeks.
For CIOs and CTOs responsible for reliable delivery of software initiatives above €1M.

This is the Dream Offer! We handle all the heavy lifting so you get a rapid, substantiated estimate without draining your internal resources.

The uncomfortable truth most IT leaders face: Most software projects don’t fail because of technology.
They fail because decisions are made on assumptions.

• Estimates based on gut feel, expert opinion or vendor promises instead of evidence

• Scope changes without quantified cost or schedule impact

• Budget overruns discovered halfway or too late to correct

• And a CIO or CTO who has to explain disappointing results to the board or CFO

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone!

And yes, this happens in agile software development just as often, or even more often, than in the traditional world of software development?

Why? The combination of 'embracing change over following a plan', which gives organizations a blank cheque to not think about requirements and acceptance criteria until too late in the process, and the use of story point metrics to try to understand progress....which is impossible.

What this really costs your organization?
Across large and mid-sized organizations, we consistently see:

• 30–60+% budget and schedule overruns caused by early estimation errors (based on human judgement methods)

• Projects approved with insufficient downside visibility and risk bands

• Capital tied up in initiatives that erode ROI or never deliver the business case In a €5M software portfolio, early fact-based correction saved €1.2M.
  

For CFOs, this is direct financial exposure.
For CIOs and CTOs, it’s personal credibility risk.

High-performing IT organizations decide differently
What if you could identify cost, schedule and risk before execution starts?

• The best IT organizations don’t manage software investments on single-point estimates.

• They manage on realistic scenarios, quantified risk drivers and objective progress metrics.

• They make go / no-go or re-scope decisions with facts — not optimism or pressure.

The solution: Software Investment Reality Check™
Independent, data-driven second opinion — delivered in 4 weeks The Software Investment Reality Check™ provides board-ready validation on:

• Objective Functional scope and size measurement (ISO-certified).

• Effort, cost and schedule forecasts estimated by an ICEAA SCEC certified professional.

• Key risk drivers and sensitivity analysis.

• Realistic delivery scenarios (low / likely / high) All powered by certified methods, historical benchmark data from 12,000+ projects, and parametric models (e.g., COCOMO II, TruePlanning or SEER-SEM).

• Compatible with agile, hybrid and traditional delivery.

All based on certified methods and benchmark data from 12,000+ projects. No opinions. No politics. Just defensible, traceable numbers.

Why This Offer Is Irresistible: The Grand Slam Value Stack

We've engineered this system to maximize your success while minimizing your time, effort, and risk by automating measurement and data collection. This offer is for 1 team/vendor/contract, but can be scaled to a wider scope. Here's exactly what you get:

Core Deliverable #1: Objective Functional scope and size measurement (ISO-certified).

The Software Investment Reality Check™ starts with an objective measurement of your software’s functional scope and size using ISO-certified standards like Nesma, IFPUG, or COSMIC Function Points. This delivers a precise, technology-independent count of user-recognized functionality — free from subjective bias, lines-of-code estimates, or implementation details. It creates a verifiable baseline that powers accurate effort, cost, and schedule forecasts, enables benchmarking against 12,000+ projects, and quantifies scope changes (e.g., a 10% requirements increase adds only 15% cost). The result is estimation accuracy below 20% (often <10% calibrated), early overrun prevention, and auditable metrics for ongoing monitoring and stakeholder trust. (Standalone Value: €25,000).

Core Deliverable #2: Effort, cost and schedule forecasts estimated by an ICEAA SCEC certified professional.

Core Deliverable #2 provides realistic effort, cost, and schedule forecasts produced by an ICEAA SCEC-certified professional using calibrated parametric models (such as COCOMO II, TruePlanning, or SEER-SEM) and your project’s functional size as the foundation. These forecasts deliver low, likely, and high scenarios — not single-point guesses — grounded in historical benchmark data from over 12,000 projects and adjusted for your specific domain, technology, team productivity, and risk drivers. The result is estimation accuracy consistently below 20% (often <10% after calibration), enabling CIOs and CTOs to present defensible numbers to boards and CFOs, prevent 30–60% overruns, and set realistic expectations from day one. This professional-grade, auditable output replaces optimism with evidence, giving you the credibility and control needed for better go/no-go decisions and proactive project steering. (Standalone Value: €25,000).

Core Deliverable #3: Realistic delivery scenarios (low / likely / high)

Core Deliverable #3 delivers realistic delivery scenarios in the form of low, likely, and high ranges for effort (mandays), cost (€), and schedule (weeks/months).These scenario ranges replace dangerous single-point estimates with evidence-based bands that account for key uncertainties, productivity variations, and risk drivers specific to your project. The value lies in enabling CIOs and CTOs to present defensible forecasts to boards and CFOs, set realistic expectations, evaluate trade-offs (e.g., scope vs. time vs. cost), and make informed go/no-go or re-scope decisions backed by probability and sensitivity analysis. This approach consistently achieves estimation accuracy below 20% (often <10% after calibration), prevents 30–60% overruns by highlighting downside risks early, and provides a clear, auditable foundation for stakeholder alignment and proactive project steering.(Standalone Value: €10,000).

Core Deliverable #4: Tailor-made Management/Stakeholder Report

Core Deliverable #4 is a concise, tailor-made management and stakeholder report — typically a crisp 2-page executive summary with visuals, key findings, and actionable recommendations — specifically crafted for CIOs, CTOs, CFOs, steering committees, and boards. It distills the full analysis into clear, non-technical language: presenting the low/likely/high scenarios for effort, cost, and schedule; highlighting the top risk drivers with quantified impacts; showing sensitivity to scope changes; and outlining objective metrics (function points, productivity ratios, EVM indicators) for ongoing monitoring. The value lies in its immediate usability: it equips leaders to align stakeholders quickly, build trust with auditable facts instead of assumptions, justify decisions or adjustments to finance and governance bodies, and communicate realistic expectations without lengthy explanations. Delivered in a board-ready format with traceable references, this report transforms complex data into compelling, decision-driving insight that strengthens credibility and enables proactive course-correction before issues escalate.(Standalone Value: €15,000).

Total Core Value: €75,000.

Bonusses

But we're not stopping there. To make this a no-brainer, we've stacked on premium bonuses that supercharge your results. These high-impact bonuses are stacked on top of the core deliverables to make your investment an absolute no-brainer—delivering immediate acceleration, exclusive resources, and long-term protection of your results.

Bonus #1: Clear project tracking and monitoring plan
Bonus #1 is a practical, clear project tracking and monitoring plan — delivered as a ready-to-use framework tailored to your initiative — that turns the Reality Check’s objective metrics into an actionable dashboard for ongoing control. It includes step-by-step guidance on applying function points for progress measurement, setting up productivity baselines (hours per function point), implementing Earned Value Management (EVM) indicators, and defining early warning thresholds for agile sprints or hybrid phases. The value is immediate operational impact: teams gain a structured way to track real progress against the low/likely/high scenarios, detect deviations early (often within weeks), re-estimate remaining work accurately, and provide transparent updates to stakeholders without guesswork. This bonus transforms the one-time analysis into a living governance tool, helping CIOs/CTOs maintain credibility, reduce surprises, prevent cost creep, and ensure projects stay aligned with approved budgets and timelines throughout execution.(Value: €5,000).

Bonus #2: Quarterly updates of the estimate based on actual progress measurements (max. 4 quarters)
Bonus #2 provides up to four quarterly re-estimations of your effort, cost, and schedule forecasts, recalibrated using actual progress data collected during execution (e.g., completed function points, measured productivity, and Earned Value Management indicators). Our ICEAA SCEC-certified expert incorporates real-world metrics from your project — such as delivered scope, velocity trends, and emerging risks — to update the low/likely/high scenarios and refine remaining work predictions. The value is sustained accuracy and control: these updates catch deviations early (preventing small issues from becoming major overruns), enable proactive re-scoping or resource adjustments, and keep stakeholders continuously aligned with realistic, evidence-based forecasts throughout the project lifecycle. Delivered as concise refresh reports with updated executive summaries, this bonus turns the initial Reality Check into an ongoing strategic advantage, helping CIOs/CTOs maintain credibility, minimize surprises, and maximize ROI over the critical first 12 months of delivery. (Value: €10,000).

Bonus #3: Analysis of Requirements Quality
Requirements (e.g., user stories) quality is an extremely important factor that decides on project success. Bad requirements will result in lots of expensive rework impacting overall productivity and quality. We use automated tooling to measure the requirements quality and give recommendations to improve where possible. This bonus is extremely valuable and is a potential game changer for your project! (Value: €7,000).

Total Bonus Value: €22,000

This makes the total Grand Total Stacked Value of this offer €97,000.

But you can get all this now for only

€35,000 ex. VAT (One-Time Payment).

That's probably less than 1% of your total project budget, and it will give you so much value, and piece of mind! We charge premium because this service delivers premium results—organizations like yours see ROI immediately..in weeks, not years. Plus, with our high-touch support, your perceived likelihood of success skyrockets!

Unmatched Uniqueness: Why No One Else Can Touch This

No one else comes close—AgileBenchmark stands alone as the premier independent expert in output-based agile governance, directly shaped by the visionary leadership of our founder, Harold van Heeringen. With over 25 years in IT advisory and more than 20 years specializing in software metrics, estimation, benchmarking, and agile team performance measurement, Harold is a globally recognized pioneer and expert. He was a contributor to the development of NPR 5333:2025 from its inception, collaborating intensively with 50+ experts from 35 leading Dutch organizations to create this groundbreaking guideline for output-based measurement, performance management, and contracting in agile software development. His unmatched credentials include:

• One of the world’s first certified Software Cost Estimators (International Cost Estimation and Analysis Association (ICEAA) - SCEC).

• Former President of ISBSG (International Software Benchmarking Standards Group), still director in the board.

• Current president at Nesma (Dutch Software Metrics Association).

• Decades of hands-on fact-based management consultancy experience at Sogeti and Metri.

• Prolific author and international speaker on performance measurement, estimation, benchmarking, and value-driven contracting.

Fully independent and unbiased, we provide the authentic, insider implementation no internal team, generic consultant, or vested vendor can replicate.

Our Commitment to Your Success: Unlimited Satisfaction Guarantee

We are 100% committed to your success. Your decision must be safe.
If the Software Investment Reality Check™ does not deliver new, decision-relevant insights into cost, schedule or risk that your team didn’t already have:
We will recalibrate the analysis at no extra cost — or you pay 50% less. That’s our commitment to your success.. and your peace of mind.

Our goal is your long-term success, and we stand behind that with unlimited support until you achieve it.

Act Now or Miss Out

There are only 3 spots available this quarter due to our hands-on involvement and limited availability of resources. With NPR 5333 gaining traction, demand is exploding. Enroll today and lock in this pricing before it rises to €85,000 next month.

Ready to reclaim control of your agile budget and output? Click Book your 30-minute introduction meeting with Harold below or email info@agilebenchmark.com to schedule your free discovery call. Don't let another project derail and spin out of control!

Book your 30-minute introduction meeting with Harold here: