13.5The ROI Calculation

To justify agentic testing to management, calculate the return on investment:

COSTS:
  LLM API: $1,500/month
  Engineer time (setup + maintenance): 20 hours/month x $80/hr = $1,600/month
  Total: $3,100/month

SAVINGS:
  Reduced manual test writing: 40 hours/month x $80/hr = $3,200/month
  Reduced flaky test debugging: 10 hours/month x $80/hr = $800/month
  Faster bug detection (shift-left): estimated $2,000/month in production incident prevention
  Total: $6,000/month

NET BENEFIT: $6,000 - $3,100 = $2,900/month
ROI: 94% monthly return