Topic
Value engineering
Is this work worth changing?
A useful business case starts with the work people do today. Record who needs the result, what counts as accepted work, and what it currently takes to get there.
The notes define accepted results, work through a forecast, and set a conditional cost ceiling. The benefit-allocation exercise follows released time into unused capacity, additional work, and separately evidenced expense reductions without counting the same hours twice.
Notes in this topic
The 12 Factors of AI Value Engineering
How to decide what to build, whether it works, and whether it’s worth the cost.
Read the noteWhat changes for the customer?
A customer can have a ready account and still be unable to do the job they bought the software for. Follow that job before choosing an AI feature.
Read the noteWhat evidence earns the next round of funding?
The next useful investment may be a few hours to test an assumption, rather than another month building the demo.
Read the noteThe success rate went up. What else changed?
Before crediting an AI change for a better result, check whether it received easier work, different evidence, or more help from people.
Read the noteThe cheaper model can cost more
A lower model bill can leave the team with more checking and repair. Count that work before choosing the model.
Read the noteWhere did the saved hours go?
Saving time doesn't always reduce spending. Check whether the hours went into more useful work, lower overtime, or free capacity, and count each hour once.
Read the noteHow to test whether ordinary machine learning is enough
If the job is predicting late shipments from existing records, compare a rule and an ordinary predictive model before asking a language model to reason through every case.
Read the noteHow much can you afford to spend getting this right?
Count review, support, and maintenance before setting the model budget. A cheap call can leave the whole service too expensive to run.
Read the noteHow much data repair does this decision need?
Find the records needed for the job before starting a company-wide cleanup. A missing budget can block a finance draft; duplicate mailing addresses might not matter.
Read the noteThe brief is wrong. What do you do next?
Keep the original promise, show where it conflicts with the work, and ask what the team should build instead.
Read the noteWhat counts as a successful result?
Count what happened: preparing a case, getting it accepted, and improving a delivery need different evidence.
Read the noteIs this workflow worth automating?
A painful process can still be a poor investment. Follow the work, check the numbers, and find out what would have to be true for a change to pay off.
Read the note