# Discovery & Value Engineering

> Know what the work is worth before you commit to it.

Canonical page: https://sentrydigitalservices.com/services/discovery-value-engineering/
Provider: Sentry Digital Services (https://sentrydigitalservices.com/)
Engagement: Project · Delivery options: Project · Support · Managed service
Last updated: 2026-10-15

Most digital spend is committed before anyone has put a number on the return. A discovery costs a fraction of the build and changes what gets built — it produces a costed value model, a plan ranked by payback, and the measures success will be judged on. There are three ways in: a free 60-minute lite discovery, a discovery built into a project, support or managed service engagement, or a fixed-price standalone engagement.

## What it does

Finds where the value is, sizes it, ranks it by payback, and produces a costed and sequenced plan with the measures agreed before anything is built.

## Where it creates value

The entry point to the whole value stream: every module that follows is priced against the value model this produces, so budget goes to the largest return rather than to the loudest voice.

## Why it cannot be ignored

Commit six figures without a value model and you find out what the work was worth only after paying for it. Scope gets agreed in a meeting, the business case gets written after the decision, and nothing is measurable afterwards because nothing was measured first.

## What you get

- **Free 60-minute lite discovery** — No charge and no obligation. One 60-minute session that leaves you with a current-state view, a gap analysis and an initial value-at-stake estimate — whether you work with us or not.
- **Discovery inside a project or service** — Every project and managed service opens with a discovery. It is built into the engagement rather than priced separately, so the work is scoped against evidence from day one.
- **Fixed-price standalone engagement** — The full engagement, delivered in weeks: the value model, the ranked plan, the costed sequence and the agreed measures. Priced up front, and useful whoever ends up building it.

## Key concepts

- **DMAIC** — Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control — the improvement method used where a process already exists. Use it when something works but underperforms. It isolates the real constraint before anyone spends money changing the wrong thing.
- **DMADV** — Define, Measure, Analyse, Design, Verify — the design method used where a process has to be created from nothing. Use it when there is nothing to improve yet. It designs the process against a measured target rather than against an opinion.
- **Value engineering** — Putting a defensible number on what a change creates, enhances or protects, before the budget is committed. It turns a wish list into a ranked plan, so options are compared on payback rather than on who argued hardest.
- **Value at stake** — The measured cost of leaving something as it is — the revenue, time or risk exposure carried by the current state. Doing nothing is a decision with a price. It puts the cost of delay next to the cost of the work.

## Next step

Book a free Discovery session: https://sentrydigitalservices.com/contact/ · value@sentrydigitalservices.com · 01738 506283