Rework Cost Estimator
Quantify the Engineering Capacity Lost to Misalignment
10-minute calculator for CTOs, VPs of Engineering, and Product Leaders.
What This Calculator Reveals
$$$
Visible Costs
Direct engineering hours lost to building the wrong thing, fixing issues that shouldn’t have happened, and redoing work due to late feedback.
2.34x
Hidden Multiplier
The true cost of rework includes context switching, morale impact, and opportunity cost. We apply a 2.34x multiplier to capture the full picture.
FTE
Wasted Engineers
We translate your rework costs into “equivalent engineers wasted”—a number that makes the impact viscerally clear to executives.
The 6 Root Causes We Diagnose
Not all rework is the same. Understanding which root cause dominates your organization tells you exactly where to focus improvement efforts.
1. Unclear Requirements
Engineers build what they think is needed, only to learn the requirements weren’t understood. Usually a product-engineering handoff issue.
2. Scope Creep
Features expand mid-sprint because stakeholders keep adding “just one more thing.” Usually a prioritization or stakeholder management issue.
3. Late Feedback
Issues are discovered in QA, staging, or production that should have been caught earlier. Usually a review process or collaboration issue.
4. Priority Changes
Work is abandoned or deprioritized mid-sprint due to shifting company priorities. Usually a leadership alignment or planning issue.
5. Technical Debt
Shortcuts taken in previous work create problems that require rework now. Usually a tradeoff visibility or decision documentation issue.
6. Cross-Team Miscommunication
Dependencies between teams aren’t surfaced or managed, causing rework when integrations fail. Usually an organizational design issue.
Who This Is For
CTOs
Understand the true cost of misalignment between engineering, product, and leadership. Use the data to advocate for process improvements.
VPs of Engineering
Quantify capacity lost to rework so you can have data-driven conversations about team productivity and organizational friction.
Product Leaders
See how product-engineering collaboration gaps translate into wasted engineering effort—and identify specific handoff improvements.
Start the Rework Cost Estimator
Takes about 10 minutes. You’ll need rough estimates of your team size, annual engineering costs, and rework percentage. The results will show you exactly where capacity is leaking.
Calculator Coming Soon
The interactive calculator is being configured with root cause analysis and benchmarking. In the meantime, schedule a call to discuss engineering-product alignment with our team.
What You’ll Learn
Your Annual Rework Cost
Total dollar amount your organization loses to rework, including the 2.34x multiplier for context switching, morale impact, and opportunity cost.
Equivalent Engineers Wasted
Your rework cost translated into FTEs—the number of engineers worth of capacity you’re losing to preventable rework each year.
Root Cause Breakdown
See which of the 6 root causes contributes most to your rework: unclear requirements, scope creep, late feedback, priority changes, tech debt, or cross-team miscommunication.
Targeted Recommendations
Based on your dominant root cause, receive specific recommendations for reducing rework through process, communication, or organizational changes.
Industry Benchmarks
How does your organization compare? Here’s what we typically see across scaling tech companies.
15-25%
Average rework rate in scaling tech companies
$500K-$2M
Annual rework cost for 30-100 person eng teams
5-15 FTE
Equivalent engineers wasted annually
Ready to Address Engineering-Product Alignment?
Rework is a symptom of deeper alignment issues. Schedule a call to discuss how we help engineering leaders reduce rework through better decision infrastructure.