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Engagement Process

How a typical engagement starts, what the Paid Scoping deliverables look like, and what walking away looks like.

Overview

A good process protects you before money is committed and keeps scope honest after. DevStudio starts with a free discovery call, then a Paid Scoping engagement that produces four written artifacts useful to any builder. This page explains how an engagement starts, what the deliverables are, what walking away looks like, and how change requests are handled without silent scope creep.

Key things to know about the process

Discovery, then Paid Scoping

A free 30-45 minute discovery call leads into a $700-$2,800 Paid Scoping engagement with a written go/no-go and four deliverables before any build commitment.

Four artifacts you keep

Business Alignment memo, Data Readiness Scorecard, Architecture and Eval Plan, and a Cost Model with risk register — designed to be useful regardless of who ends up building.

Change requests are explicit

Work runs in two-week increments. Anything inside the next increment is in scope; anything bigger is a written, priced change request, so scope changes never get absorbed silently.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a typical engagement start?
Discovery call (30-45 minutes, no charge) → Paid Scoping ($700-$2,800, 1-2 weeks, written go/no-go and 4 deliverables) → if go, project engagement signature + kickoff. About 25% of Paid Scopings recommend not building, in which case you keep all four written artifacts and walk away with full discovery for under $3k.
What are the four Paid Scoping deliverables?
Business Alignment memo, Data Readiness Scorecard, Architecture and Eval Plan, and Cost Model with risk register. Take them to your CFO, your CDO, your in-house team, or a different vendor — they are designed to be useful regardless of who builds. See /resources/ai-project-scoping-checklist/ for the full framework.
What if Scoping recommends not building?
You keep the four written artifacts. We typically offer a free 30-minute follow-up 90 days later to re-evaluate the recommendation when conditions change. The Scoping fee is not refundable, but the deliverables are designed to outlast the recommendation.
Can we start with a small pilot?
Yes — that is what Paid Scoping is. For "demo before commit" buyers, we also occasionally run a 2-3 week "vertical slice prototype" engagement (typically $7k-$15k) that ships a working end-to-end thin path of the agent. This is rarer than Paid Scoping because the vertical-slice does not produce written deliverables that survive the engagement.
How do change requests work mid-engagement?
Two-week increments. Anything inside the next increment is in scope. Anything bigger is a written change request priced against the architecture decision record. We do not absorb scope changes into existing increments silently — that is what causes the 18-week project that ships at month 14.

Related guides

AI Agent Development

The build that follows a go decision.

 AI Project Scoping Checklist

The framework behind the four deliverables.

 How to Accept an AI Project

Acceptance criteria for each milestone.

 Cost & Pricing FAQ

How Paid Scoping credits toward the build.

Other FAQ Categories

Cost & Pricing

Project rates, Paid Scoping, payment milestones.

 Timeline & Delivery

5-phase delivery, milestones, post-launch.

 Technical Approach

Architecture, RAG vs fine-tuning, security.

 Team & Communication

Time zones, escalation, async-first delivery.

 Engagement Process

Discovery, Paid Scoping, change requests.

 Delivery & Handover

Source code ownership, 6-month QA, model upgrades.