Plan the PoC owner at roughly a third to half of their time for two weeks, developer reviewers at a few focused hours each, and the decision maker at one or two short meetings. Treat these as planning figures to adjust, not benchmarks, because repo size and tooling drive the real number.
Why estimate at all
PoCs fail quietly when nobody has time. The owner is busy, developers skip the review, and the readout is built on thin data. A time budget makes the cost visible, so you can protect the hours or shrink the scope. These figures are planning assumptions, not measured industry data.
Where the hours go
| Role | Rough share of time | What they do |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | Third to half of two weeks | Setup, running tests, logging, readout |
| Security reviewer | A few hours across the trial | Checks accuracy sample, prioritization |
| Developer reviewers | Two to four hours each | Review findings, try fixes, give feedback |
| Decision maker | One kickoff and one readout | Approves criteria, makes the call |
| Platform or CI admin | One to three hours | Tokens, runners, network rules |
Adjust upward for monorepos, unusual build systems or strict access approvals.
The hidden hours
Three things eat more time than expected.
- Access and approvals. Getting a token, a runner or a firewall rule can take days of calendar time even if it needs ten minutes of work. Start these on day minus five. See day zero environment checks.
- Manual accuracy review. Checking 20 findings by hand is perhaps an afternoon. It is also the most valuable afternoon of the trial, so do not skip it.
- Context switching. Developers who review in small interrupted chunks take longer than those who book a single block. Schedule a 90 minute review session instead of asking for ad hoc help.
How to keep it small
- Test three repositories, not thirty.
- Reuse one accuracy sample for all reviewers.
- Use a shared spreadsheet or a single log file, not a custom dashboard.
- Run the vendor kickoff as one call, not a series.
- Cap the PoC at ten working days and defend the date.
Count the opportunity cost
If a developer spends three hours on the trial, that is three hours not on the roadmap. State this in the charter and have the manager agree. It is a fair trade when the tool may save far more later, but it should be a conscious one.
Signals you are overspending
You are over budget if the owner is still configuring on day six, if reviewers have not looked at a single finding by day five, or if the log is a week behind. Cut scope at that point. Drop a repo or a criterion and record why.
What a good outcome looks like
By day ten, you have a one page memo, a handful of measured numbers, feedback from at least two developers, and a decision. That is a modest output for the hours spent, and that is the point. A PoC buys evidence for a decision, not a finished rollout.
Try it yourself
Open the demo and note how little a person has to do once scanning runs on its own, which is the effort you are trying to buy.
Click through it at your own pace, or open it full screen.
Quick check
Can one person run the whole PoC?
They can run the mechanics, but you still need developer feedback. A single reviewer can hide a usability problem.
Is the vendor's engineer a substitute for our time?
They can help with setup. They cannot judge whether findings fit your code or your workflow.
Safeguard offers SBOM and dependency scanning with reachability analysis, and you can try a free scan at gold.safeguard.sh/scan before you plan a longer test. The CLI, desktop app and IDE extensions are listed on safeguard.sh/download.
Last reviewed: 19 October 2026.
