cost-estimation

name	cost-estimation
description	Create cost estimations, budget breakdowns, and pricing for IT consulting projects, grounded in customer RFP/RFQ from NotebookLM. Use this skill when the user asks to "estimate cost", "create a budget", "calculate pricing", "費用見積", "コスト計算", "how much will this cost", "rate card", "TCO analysis", "total cost of ownership", or needs to produce financial projections for a project proposal. Also trigger for "予算", "単価", "pricing model", and any request involving project financials, billing structure, or cost-benefit analysis.
metadata	{"version":"0.2.0"}

Cost Estimation

Generate detailed cost breakdowns for IT consulting engagements, grounded in RFP/RFQ budget constraints and scope from NotebookLM.

NotebookLM-First Rule

If a NotebookLM notebook is available, extract budget constraints, pricing requirements, and scope before calculating costs. A proposal priced above the client's stated budget (or using a pricing model they reject) wastes everyone's time.

Workflow

Step 0: Extract Financial Context from NotebookLM

notebooklm ask "What budget range, cost ceiling, or financial constraints does the client state?" --json
notebooklm ask "What pricing model does the client prefer — fixed price, time and materials, or other?" --json
notebooklm ask "What payment terms, invoicing schedule, or financial milestones does the client specify?" --json
notebooklm ask "Are there any cost-related evaluation criteria? Does the client weight price in proposal scoring?" --json
notebooklm ask "What infrastructure, licensing, or third-party costs does the client expect the vendor to cover vs. provide themselves?" --json

Step 1: Gather Additional Inputs from User

After extracting from the RFP:

• Effort estimate (from effort-estimation skill or user-provided)
• Team composition (from team-composition skill or user-provided)
• Your company's rate card — use internal rates, not just market benchmarks
• Currency: JPY, USD, or other

Step 2: Labor Cost Calculation

Read references/rate-cards.md for market rate benchmarks. Use the user's actual rates when provided — market rates are for sanity-checking only.

Calculation:

Labor Cost = Σ (Role Rate × Man-Months per Role)

Role	Seniority	Monthly Rate	Man-Months	Subtotal	RFP Constraint

The RFP Constraint column notes if the RFP caps rates, mandates seniority levels, or dictates team size.

Step 3: Non-Labor Costs

Infrastructure (estimate monthly): Cloud services, dev/staging environments, CI/CD, monitoring

Licenses: Dev tools, third-party APIs, security tools, database licenses

Other: Travel (出張費), training, hardware, data migration tools

Note which costs the RFP says the client provides vs. expects from the vendor.

Step 4: Cost Structure by Phase

Phase	Labor	Infra	License	Other	Phase Total

Step 5: Apply Pricing Model

Use the model the RFP specifies. If unspecified, recommend with rationale.

Fixed Price (一括請負):

• Add risk premium: 15-25% on cost estimate
• If RFP states a ceiling → work backward from it
• Payment schedule: match RFP milestones if stated

T&M (準委任):

• Bill at agreed rates
• Set budget caps if RFP requires
• Include minimum commitment period

Hybrid:

• Fixed for well-defined phases, T&M for evolving scope

Step 6: Budget Fit Check

Critical: Compare your total against the RFP's stated budget:

• Within budget: Proceed normally
• Over budget: Flag the gap, propose scope reductions or phasing options
• Under budget: Verify you haven't missed scope items; the gap may indicate missed requirements

Step 7: Output

Cost Summary:

Category	Amount	Notes
Labor	¥XX,XXX,XXX	X man-months total
Infrastructure	¥X,XXX,XXX
Licenses	¥X,XXX,XXX
Other	¥XXX,XXX
Subtotal
Management Fee (10%)
Risk Buffer (15%)
Grand Total
RFP Budget	¥XX,XXX,XXX	Client's stated range

Payment Schedule aligned to RFP milestones if stated.

TCO Analysis (for infrastructure projects): 3-year and 5-year projection.

Key Principles

• Respect the budget: If the RFP states a range, design within it or explain why it's insufficient
• Transparency: Every line item traceable to scope
• No hidden costs: Call out the risk buffer explicitly
• Scope linkage: Every cost traces to a WBS task which traces to an RFP requirement

For rate card references, read references/rate-cards.md.