A demonstration can be impressive without revealing what repeated use costs. An operating review asks what resources are needed to deliver the intended service at an acceptable level of quality.
Separate development and ongoing use
Data preparation, experimentation and evaluation belong to development. Repeated model use, storage, monitoring and support belong to ongoing delivery. The boundary depends on the project, so a budget should describe what each cost item includes rather than relying on a single total.
Compare infrastructure assumptions
Purchased hardware, rented compute and an external model service create different commitments and dependencies. Consider usage variability, capacity needs, data handling and exit options. A low unit quote may not be the lowest total cost when unused capacity and supporting work are included.
Measure a useful completed outcome
A practical assessment can include retries, error handling and human review. State the expected workload and quality requirement before estimating a cost per completed task. Until those inputs are known, a reliable project estimate cannot be derived from a generic hardware or model price.
- What workload and availability are assumed?
- Which costs remain when demand is lower than expected?
- What changes if the service or model must be replaced?