Before writing a line of code we put the expected return in writing. The base formula is simple: weekly hours spent on the process, times 52 weeks, times the team’s hourly cost, times the truly automatable percentage.
The hard part is not the formula
It is estimating the automatable percentage honestly. In processes with frequent exceptions it rarely exceeds 70%, and promising more is the fastest way to lose the client’s trust by month three.
What we measure afterwards
The same indicator, every month, against the baseline agreed before starting.