Build
Set up, install and configure
The one-off effort to get a tool installed, connected to your applications and environments, and ready for the first test to be written.
- Unit
- hours, one-time
- Where you enter it
- Build tab, Detailed mode, per vendor.
What it means
Everything before the first test case: provisioning the tool or tenant, connecting it to test environments and identity, configuring integrations with the CI pipeline, the test-management tool and the defect tracker, and setting up the first project. It is per vendor, and it is paid once.
For a cloud platform this can be days; for a self-hosted or homegrown framework it can be weeks of engineering before anyone writes a test.
Why it matters to the cost
It is easy to forget because it happens once, but it lands entirely in year one and it is where a "free" framework stops being free. Forty hours of set-up at the default rate is about $2,700; a homegrown framework's initial plumbing can run to several hundred hours.
Typical values
AI-native and codeless cloud tools: 8–16 hours. Script-based tools: 16–40 hours. Homegrown frameworks: 80–200 hours.
Typical values describe a category of tool — AI-native, codeless, script-based, homegrown, manual — never a named product. Why we do not price named products.
Where it appears in the model
Build — one-off
- Total test cases
- basic + average + complex Test case complexity tiers
- Build effort
- Set up, install and configure + Scoping the suite + Training time per person × People trained
- + Σ Test case complexity tiers × Build time per test case for each tier, as Scratch vs migration
- Build cost
- Build effort × Effective hourly rate + Build tokens priced as Token cost
Every name is a link to its definition. See the whole model.
Try it with your numbers
Set up, install and configure is a row in the calculator. Change it and every total on the page moves with it — free, in your browser, nothing to install.
See how set up, install and configure impacts the calculation of test automation costsLast reviewed 2026-09-15. All terms.