The press headlines of how much was spent on an IT system; as well as how much actually went to "coding" portion; in my experience can be sensationalized and wr

The press headlines of how much was spent on an IT system; as well as how much actually went to "coding" portion; in my experience can be sensationalized and wrong by several orders of magnitude. As indicated elsewhere, ERP implementations can go spectacularly badly - and I maintain my claim that treating them as an IT project, which your estimate/equations are doing, is the #1 way of setting them up for failure. In fact, I would imagine that the key work done at Stripe is not by talented engineers/coders with IT/systems knowledge (not to in any way put them down), but by business/financials/law/banking experts (who ideally would have some or lots of IT knowedge or background so as to not be dangerous). Again, think of our friendly neighbourhood patio11 as a perfect example of technical skills and hard-earned real-world business experience.