After I overhauled the estimating engine to measure directly off a drawing's own vector geometry instead of a desktop approximation, I needed a real proof point. So I picked a 36,000-square-foot institutional campus the team had already estimated once before, with the old method.
I ran the new system against the same project we'd priced months earlier the old way, instead of only testing it on something new and unproven.
The most credible proof an improved process actually works is catching your own earlier mistake, not producing a plausible new number on a fresh project. Comparing the new method directly against our own prior estimate, on the same drawings, that's the honest test.
The new system measured partitions at 1,834 linear feet against the earlier desktop estimate's 9,470. A five-times overcount that would have priced the bid wrong. An independent blind pass confirmed the corrected number within about 2.4 percent.
The strongest proof a new process works is showing it catch a real mistake your old process actually made, not just showing it spit out a good-looking answer on paper.
Most would rather quietly bury the old number than use it as proof the new system works.