Fast rule
If any item lands in red, quote a review or discovery slice first. If two or more land in amber, narrow the first milestone before building. If everything is green, the scope may be ready for implementation pricing.
1. Outcome clarity
- Green One measurable workflow outcome is named.
- Amber The client lists tools but not the decision to improve.
- Red The request is only "add AI" or "build an agent".
2. Data boundary
- Green Allowed sources and excluded data are explicit.
- Amber Sources exist but ownership/access is unclear.
- Red Production secrets or regulated data are required for scoping.
3. Human approval
- Green A staff approval point is built into the first milestone.
- Amber Staff can review outputs, but not before user-visible actions.
- Red The first milestone changes accounts, refunds or sends advice automatically.
4. Evidence quality
- Green There are recent examples, edge cases and source docs.
- Amber Docs exist but duplicates or stale procedures are visible.
- Red The agent must infer policy from memory or chat history only.
5. Evaluation path
- Green Success can be checked with a small labeled set.
- Amber Success is subjective but reviewers are available.
- Red No one can say what a correct output looks like.
6. Rollback plan
- Green The workflow can fail closed and route to a human.
- Amber Manual fallback exists but is not documented.
- Red A bad output can create irreversible customer or financial impact.
Quote the first milestone like this
| If the score is | Sell this first | Do not sell yet |
|---|---|---|
| Mostly green | Implementation slice with acceptance tests. | Open-ended transformation roadmap. |
| Mixed amber | Scopegrade-style review, evidence map and first milestone plan. | Full build with fixed timeline. |
| Any red | Risk review, redacted brief and data-boundary clarification. | Autonomous customer-facing agent. |
Useful brief fields
- Current workflow and tools.
- What decision or handoff should improve.
- Sources the system may use.
- Actions that must stay human-approved.
- Examples of correct and incorrect outcomes.
Need a second pass?
Send a redacted brief and buy the smallest review that matches the risk: workflow scope, RAG readiness or code scorecard. The output is written, async and designed to help an agency decide whether to quote, narrow or defer.