Why
Pipeline items — new products, migrations, scaling events — represent 20–50% of next-quarter spend changes. Without standardised capture, forecasts are blind trend-line extrapolations and Finance loses trust in cloud economics. A $200K unexpected service launch discovered only in quarterly reviews is a planning failure, not a cost failure.
What
Establish a quarterly demand intake process with a standardised template that captures cost estimates for new cloud initiatives. The output is an aggregated planning summary that feeds into forecasting and budgeting.
How
Create the Demand Intake Template
Use a shared spreadsheet, Confluence page, or ServiceNow catalogue item. The format matters less than doing it consistently every cycle. Required fields:
| Field | Example | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Initiative Name | Payment Service v2 Migration | Links to business value |
| Owner | Jane Smith (Eng Lead) | Ensures follow-up on estimate changes |
| Target Go-Live | Q2 2026 | Times the impact for budgeting |
| Cloud Provider(s) | AWS | Selects the right estimation tools |
| Key Services | EKS, RDS PostgreSQL, S3, ALB | Pinpoints cost drivers |
| Expected Scale | 50K TPS peak, 2TB storage/mo | Core input — underestimating doubles bills |
| Duration | Permanent (production) | Affects commitment decisions (Spot vs RI) |
| Estimated Monthly Cost | $18,000–$22,000 | Use ranges, not single numbers |
| Confidence Level | Medium [architecture not final] | Guides buffer size in forecasting |
Use cloud-native pricing calculators (AWS Pricing Calculator, Azure Pricing Calculator, GCP Pricing Calculator) for estimates. You don’t need perfect numbers — a range with a stated confidence level is infinitely more useful than no estimate.
Define Governance Roles
| Role | Responsibility | Cadence |
|---|---|---|
| Product / Eng Leads | Provide initiative details, own estimate accuracy | Quarterly intake, monthly refresh |
| FinOps Practitioner | Facilitate intake, validate estimates, aggregate | Per intake cycle |
| Finance Approver | Review aggregated plan vs budget, flag risks | End of quarterly planning |
| Executive Sponsor | Enforce participation, resolve disputes | Quarterly kickoffs |
Run the Quarterly Intake
Collect demand signals from all business units. Aggregate into a planning summary:
Q2 2026 Cloud Demand Summary
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Current Run Rate (baseline): $420,000/month
Planned Additions:
┌───────────────────────────────┬──────────┬────────────┐
│ Initiative │ Est/Month│ Confidence │
├───────────────────────────────┼──────────┼────────────┤
│ Payment Service v2 │ $20,000 │ Medium │
│ Data Lake Phase 2 │ $35,000 │ High │
│ ML Model Serving (new) │ $12,000 │ Low │
│ Dev/Test environment refresh │ $5,000 │ High │
└───────────────────────────────┴──────────┴────────────┘
Total New Demand: $72,000/month
This becomes the INPUT to Forecasting.Deliverable Checklist
- Demand intake template created and published
- Governance roles assigned (who collects, validates, approves)
- First quarterly intake completed with all BUs
- Planning summary aggregated with confidence levels
- Monthly refresh cadence scheduled