Many years consulting for large custom systems for Fortune 500s etc: executives have budgets and they want to know how much they’re spending, what they’re getti

Many years consulting for large custom systems for Fortune 500s etc: executives have budgets and they want to know how much they’re spending, what they’re getting, and when. They don’t want to hear about the complexities of software estimation. I manage the problem with waterfall: Step 1. Produce absolutely everything you know about your requirements in your own words and formats. Whatever you have, send it in. Don’t worry about structure (assuming no RFP). Step 2. I use that as a scope of work for a contract covering the Requirements Analysis. I can basically estimate how long the RA will take based on those client inputs, which costs me almost nothing (maybe 2-3 meetings) to collect. Client pays for the RA. 3. Develop RA. I now have a concrete scope of v1 product, a draft of the persistence model, key UI, etc, and can make a somewhat reliable delivery date. 4. RA used as the basis of the dev contract. Agile is nice when you’re building a technical product in house or, I guess when you meet execs willing to agree to that “we’ll see what the scope and cost is as we go” but I haven’t met them.