Name the numbers before you build anything

A baseline you cannot argue with later

A baseline recorded after go-live is not a baseline. Agreeing the measures, their definitions and their current values while the work is still hypothetical is the only way the final number survives scrutiny.

It also forces a conversation that otherwise gets put off forever: which three or four measures matter, out of the forty you could put on a screen.

Name a person, not a committee

Every definition needs someone with the authority to settle what it means. Without that, modeling stalls at the first disagreement and the schedule slips while everyone waits for consensus.

We make this a contractual condition, not a suggestion, because the engagements that skip it are the ones that overrun.

Check the systems are readable

We verify in week one that each source system can be read. Week six is too late to find out. If something cannot be connected inside the scope, drop it or price it there and then instead of absorbing the surprise later.