Jakten Assurance User Guide

Document ID: M24-DOC-001

Audience: Estimators, commercial leads, reviewers, and project managers

Last updated: 2026-08-12

Applies to: Jakten Platform 2.0

1. What Assurance does

Jakten Assurance manages the commercial story of an estimate: its working population, packages, plan, cost model, changes, knowledge, reviews, Basis of Estimate, issue artifacts, and governed handoff to Risk.

The selected Estimate Version is the workspace boundary. Imports and edits build the current version; issued revisions, review evidence, benchmark packs, and published handoffs remain frozen historical evidence.

2. Open an Estimate Version

1. In Platform, open the project.
2. On Overview, create a working Estimate Version or select an existing one.
3. Confirm Jakten Assurance is enabled, assigned to the project, and licensed for your user.
4. Select Assurance.

If Assurance says the workspace is unavailable, return to Overview and select a working version. Use Back to Platform to change projects, versions, members, drivers, or project settings.

3. Navigate with the ribbon

The Assurance ribbon is the single navigation and command surface. Its seven work areas are:

Select a work-area tab to preview its destinations, then select a destination to navigate. The ribbon also shows actions contributed by the current page. Collapse state is remembered by work area.

4. Begin in Command Center

Use Command Center to understand the selected version before editing. Review commercial totals, population coverage, metric results, package condition, and attention items.

An unavailable or missing figure is not zero. Follow its explanation or drill-through link to the source package, import, metric result, or attention item.

Recommended first checks:

1. Confirm the project and Estimate Version shown in the header.
2. Review current totals and coverage.
3. Open actionable commercial attention items.
4. Confirm the Estimate Plan and required inputs.
5. Review the Cost Model before preparing a deliverable total.

5. Plan and inputs

Use Estimate Plan to coordinate the work needed to build the version. The plan supports scheduled work, dependencies, input-deliverable tracking, and status. Accept inputs only after the received revision and responsible work item are clear.

Project Drivers are maintained in Platform. Assurance uses those values for normalized knowledge and company metrics; if a rate is unavailable, confirm the required driver exists rather than entering a substitute zero.

6. Import and manage Packages

Use Commercial → Packages for the authoritative commercial population.

Typical workflow:

1. Create or open the destination package.
2. Import an Excel or CSV estimate, or edit supported line details in the package workspace.
3. Map required fields and classifications.
4. Review warnings, unmatched classifications, units, and monetary values.
5. Commit the import.
6. Reopen the package and confirm totals, counts, coverage, and source identity.

Use Import History to inspect committed imports and their status. A later import does not silently erase frozen history. Correct working data through the supported package and import actions.

Package detail brings together line items, commercial rollups, labor economics, variance, change exposure, history, knowledge, and review context. Use the package drill-through rather than copying totals into an external summary.

7. Build the Cost Model

Use Cost Model to build from governed direct cost into the loaded project total. Rows can represent percentages, lump sums, subtotals, and permitted module references such as a published Risk contingency result.

Review every unavailable module reference. Assurance will not invent a value when a required Risk publication or other basis is missing.

When pending changes are present, the workspace may show a forecast overlay. That overlay supports decisions; it does not rewrite the committed estimate population.

8. Manage changes and should-cost work

Use Change / Trend Register to capture a change, move it through its commercial status, connect it to affected packages, estimate its cost, apply markup, and classify whether it is already incorporated, additive, or still undetermined.

Use Should-Cost Register for procurement packages, quote comparison, vendor or internal should-cost inputs, variance analysis, and workflow status. The register is project-scoped and can span Estimate Versions; confirm the version and package context before importing or comparing.

Open exposures must remain visible until they are resolved or intentionally incorporated. Do not manually add a change to totals without recording its package and reconciliation treatment.

9. Compare Evolution

Use Estimate Evolution and Commercial Deltas to compare saved version evidence. Choose the intended earlier and later versions, then review the comparison basis before interpreting totals or changed lines.

Comparisons use frozen version evidence. If a comparison is unavailable, one side lacks the required saved artifact; unavailable does not mean no change.

Use Timeline for the commercial sequence and historical events around the version.

10. Use Knowledge and Standard Metrics

Version Knowledge surfaces relevant historical commercial evidence and reasonableness context for the current work.

Standard Metrics contains the governed metric library and the values applied to the version. Published company standard metrics are applied through the governed estimate-state workflow; users do not manually activate metrics on a project. Review definitions, values, citations, and unavailable reasons before promoting a result into a Finding.

Knowledge suggestions support professional judgment. Confirm applicability and source context before relying on a benchmark or rate.

11. Run a Version Review

Open Reviews to prepare and conduct a governed commercial review. The guided workflow supports:

1. Preparing the review basis
2. Reviewing required content and risk evidence
3. Recording findings, decisions, and actions
4. Preparing the presentation
5. Presenting from a frozen session basis
6. Issuing the review artifact

Resolve blocking validation before issue. If the estimate basis changes after preparation, refresh or create the appropriate review evidence instead of presenting a stale basis.

12. Maintain the Living BoE

Use Living BoE to compose the Basis of Estimate from structured, cited evidence and authored narrative. You can arrange governed sections, add custom sections or text blocks, insert supported package evidence, and review cost, coverage, change-trend, and project build-up content.

Draft edits are not the same as an issued revision. Review the composed document, citations, and displayed totals before issuing PDF or Word output.

13. Deliver and publish

Use Deliver for final preparation:

Before issue or publication, confirm the displayed project, version, basis, population coverage, and validation state. Publishing to Risk creates a governed handoff; it does not grant permission to alter a completed Risk simulation in place.

14. Common problems

Related documentation