OPEN-SOURCE DEVELOPER SERVICE: PILOT WORKSHEET
Ken Designers | kendesigners.com | 17 October 2026
Companion: https://kendesigners.com/articles/open-source-projects-to-make-money-as-a-developer/

1. BUYER AND PROBLEM
Business type and location:
Person responsible for the workflow:
Person who can approve the purchase:
Current steps and tools:
What fails or wastes effort? What evidence supports this?
What result would justify a pilot?

2. PROJECT FIT
Upstream repository:
Selected stable release / tag / commit:
Official installation and upgrade documentation:
Licence of the exact code and dependencies used:
Enterprise / paid-feature boundaries:
Trademark and attribution requirements:
Reason this is preferable to a simpler existing solution:
Required skills and skills still to learn:

3. DEMONSTRATION
One workflow to demonstrate:
Invented or explicitly approved sample data:
Customer / learner / staff journey:
Successful outcome:
Failure and recovery outcome:
What has actually been tested? What remains an assumption?

4. PILOT SCOPE
Included screens, workflows, data imports and integrations:
Excluded features and services:
Client prerequisites, accounts and approved material:
Infrastructure and third-party service costs:
Delivery assumptions and dependencies:
Acceptance tests (specific inputs, actions and expected results):
Rollback trigger and method:
Named business owner for acceptance:

5. COMMERCIAL ESTIMATE
Discovery hours:
Implementation hours:
Data preparation / migration hours:
Testing, meetings, training and handover hours:
Internal rate and why it is sustainable:
Direct costs and scope contingency:
Proposed implementation price:
Payment milestones:
Which costs are billed directly to the client?
No guaranteed earnings or unverified savings claims.

6. OPERATIONS AND EXIT
Domain / hosting / repository / service account owners:
Access roles and secret storage:
Data retention and export:
Backup frequency and successful restore evidence:
Monitoring and incident contact:
Support hours, response process and included work:
Separately quoted changes:
Upgrade and security review process:
Handover documents and staff training:
Client exit and account transfer process:

7. AFTER THE PILOT
Accepted / failed checks and unresolved work:
Measured before-and-after results, if available:
Actual time and cost compared with the estimate:
Permission to publish a case study or testimonial:
Next scope decision:

This worksheet is a planning aid, not legal advice, a quotation or an income promise.