Delivery Units: A Better Way to Price Software Delivery
A Delivery Unit (DU) is AiDOOS's universal output-based pricing primitive. One $/DU rate per tier,
calibrated against the DU Dictionary, refundable when unused. The measurement and pricing layer
that makes outcome-based delivery
structurally true.
Outcome-Based Delivery is the promise.
Delivery Units are the measurement and pricing system.
Virtual Delivery Centers are the execution infrastructure.
A Delivery Unit is a standardized measure of cognitive output, calibrated against the AiDOOS
DU Dictionary — a reference catalog of typical software, data, design, and integration work.
Roughly 1 DU equals 4 hours of mid-level engineering output as a benchmark, but
hours are a benchmark, not a billing unit.
A senior architect shipping 1 DU in 1 hour and a junior engineer shipping 1 DU in 8 hours
both produce 1 DU. The customer pays the same. The DU primitive decouples customer pricing
from time, technology, and seniority. Internally, AiDOOS computes a multi-factor calculation
that captures technology, seniority, scarcity, and complexity — those factors are never
published as line items. The customer sees one universal $/DU rate per tier; complex work
consumes more DUs.
Why measure work in DUs?
Hourly billing creates incentive misalignment — vendors profit when work takes longer.
Story points are team-internal estimation units with no consistent cross-vendor meaning
and no pricing attached. Fixed-bid milestones bundle scope estimation, vendor risk, and
customer acceptance into a single number that breaks when scope shifts.
DUs unbundle. They are:
Calibrated globally — against the DU Dictionary, not against any one team's velocity.
Priced publicly — one $/DU rate per tier, identical across all customers.
Consumed only on acceptance — the engine cannot bill for unshipped work.
Refundable when unused — DUs in the wallet (not allocated to active work) come back to your card.
Comparable across vendors — a DU is a DU regardless of who delivered it.
The result: pricing that aligns vendor and customer incentives. AiDOOS earns when work ships
and is accepted, not when hours rack up.
DUs vs hours, story points, and milestones
Unit
What it measures
Where it breaks
Hours
Time spent
Vendor profits when work takes longer; customer absorbs scope creep
Story Points
Team-internal complexity perception
No cross-vendor meaning; no pricing attached; recalibrated per team
Fixed-Bid Milestones
Lump-sum deliverables
Scope changes break the bundle and trigger contracting cycles
Per-FTE Months
Headcount × time
Pays for redundancy customer didn't ask for; punishes overstaffing
Delivery Units (DUs)
Calibrated cognitive output, accepted-shipped
—
Milestones don't go away under DU pricing — they remain the acceptance gates that trigger DU
consumption. They just stop doubling as pricing units. Story points still work for sprint
planning if your team uses them. DUs are the customer-facing pricing layer, not a replacement
for internal team rituals.
How AiDOOS calibrates DUs — the DU Dictionary
The DU Dictionary is the reference catalog AiDOOS uses to convert real-world work to Delivery
Units. AI-assisted estimation matches a story description against the catalog; the calibration
board adjudicates unusual cases; continuous learning from actual-vs-estimated outcomes refines
the calibration over time.
The Dictionary is the platform's core IP and competitive moat. Competitors can copy the
pricing page in a day; they cannot copy years of calibration data. Pre-flight estimation
shows the customer the estimated DU count, the historical accuracy band of similar estimates,
and the breakdown of what drove the size.
Individual stories are capped at ~20 DUs. Anything bigger must be decomposed. This caps DU
inflation, keeps invoices predictable, and forces the discipline of breaking work into
shippable units rather than letting "the integration project" become an opaque 200-DU blob.
DU mechanics — consumption, refund, re-delivery
Consumption. A DU consumes from the customer's wallet only when the corresponding
work ships and acceptance criteria are met. Work in progress doesn't consume. Failed-acceptance
work doesn't consume. The engine cannot bill for unshipped work.
Pre-flight estimation. Before any work is committed, the customer sees an
estimated DU count for the scope, with historical accuracy bands. Estimates can be revised during
scoping. Once accepted, the platform commits talent against the estimate.
Re-delivery on acceptance miss. If delivered work fails the customer's documented
acceptance criteria, AiDOOS re-delivers at no additional DU cost. The platform pays the talent
for the re-do; the customer's wallet is not debited a second time.
Refundable unused DUs. DUs sitting in the wallet — not allocated to active
in-progress work — can be refunded at the rate paid, no questions asked, to the original
payment method. AiDOOS pays $0 talent cost against unconsumed DUs, so refunds cost the platform
nothing.
Real-time DU dashboard. DU consumption is visible per-deliverable in the
customer's admin console. No lag, no end-of-month reconciliation surprise.
DU pricing tiers
Tier
DUs
Price
$/DU
Validity
Best fit
Starter
10
$2,000
$200
90 days
The $2K bet. Credit-card checkout, bypasses procurement.
Small ★ Most Popular
60
$10,000
$167
6 months
Activation tier — most customers land here.
Scale
250
$40,000
$160
12 months
Multi-team expansion. Best per-DU rate in self-serve flow.
Project flow uses tier bands to determine the rate (1-30 DUs at Starter rate, 31-150 at Small,
151-499 at Scale, 500+ at Enterprise). Same dollar-per-DU at any given DU count whether you
pre-purchase a pack or run an engagement-by-engagement Project. No "on-demand premium."
For the full pricing breakdown, see the pricing page. For the framework
that normalizes DU pricing against hourly vendors apples-to-apples, see the
Total Cost of Delivery framework.
Delivery Units — Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Delivery Unit?
A Delivery Unit (DU) is AiDOOS's universal output-based pricing primitive — a standardized measure of cognitive output, calibrated against the AiDOOS DU Dictionary. Roughly 1 DU equals 4 hours of mid-level engineering output as a benchmark, but hours are a benchmark, not a billing unit. The customer pays per DU shipped regardless of who shipped it or how long it took.
How does Delivery Unit pricing work?
Customers buy DUs in credit packs (Starter 10 DUs / Small 60 DUs / Scale 250 DUs / Enterprise custom) or via the Project flow with DU count sized by Instant Proposal. DUs only consume against shipped, accepted milestones. Unused DUs are refundable at the rate paid; failed-acceptance work is re-delivered at no additional DU cost.
How are DUs calibrated?
AiDOOS maintains the DU Dictionary — a reference catalog of typical software, data, design, and integration work, calibrated to DU counts. AI-assisted estimation matches a story description against the catalog; the calibration board adjudicates unusual cases; continuous learning from actual-vs-estimated outcomes refines the calibration over time. Pre-flight estimation is shown to the customer with historical accuracy bands.
Why DUs instead of hours?
Hourly billing creates incentive misalignment — vendors profit when work takes longer. DUs decouple price from time: a senior architect shipping 1 DU in 1 hour and a junior engineer shipping 1 DU in 8 hours both produce 1 DU. The customer pays the same. The vendor's economic incentive aligns with shipping faster, not slower.
Why DUs instead of story points?
Story points are team-internal estimation units — they have no consistent meaning across vendors and they don't carry pricing. DUs are calibrated against a global reference catalog, carry a published $/DU rate, and translate directly to invoiceable delivery. Story points solve a sprint-planning problem; DUs solve a buyer-pricing problem.
Why DUs instead of fixed-bid milestones?
Fixed-bid milestones bundle scope estimation, vendor risk, and customer acceptance into a single number. Scope changes break the bundle and trigger contracting cycles. DUs unbundle: the customer pays per DU consumed, which scales naturally with scope. Different work consumes DUs differently without renegotiating the contract. Milestones still exist as acceptance gates; they just don't double as pricing units.
Are the DU multipliers (technology, seniority, scarcity, complexity) published?
No — and that's deliberate. Publishing per-factor multipliers would invite endless line-item negotiation. Customers see one universal $/DU rate per tier; the engine internally accounts for technology, seniority, scarcity, and complexity by sizing the DU count per piece of work. A complex piece of work consumes more DUs; a simple one consumes fewer. The customer thinks in DUs, not in factor breakdowns.
What happens to unused DUs?
Unused DUs in the wallet (not allocated to active in-progress work) are refundable at the rate paid, no questions asked. AiDOOS pays $0 talent cost against unconsumed DUs, so refunds cost the platform nothing. Alternatively, top up before pack expiry and unused DUs roll forward into the new pack.
What's a typical DU count for a feature?
Engagement-specific. A standard CRUD feature with frontend + backend + tests might consume 5-15 DUs. A medium SaaS feature spanning multiple services might consume 30-60 DUs. An enterprise integration with custom logic and acceptance testing might run 80-150 DUs. The Instant Proposal estimates DU count for any work you describe before you commit budget. Individual stories are capped at ~20 DUs; anything bigger must be decomposed.
Stop billing hours. Start shipping DUs.
Tell us what you want shipped. We'll size it in Delivery Units and put a Virtual Delivery Center
pod against it in days. Refundable if you change your mind. Re-delivered if it doesn't pass acceptance.