The Methvin Global Variables Methodology
A resource-based approach to transparent construction feasibility modelling
Technical White Paper
Industry: Feasibility | Commercial Building | Development | Quantity Surveying | Construction Cost Engineering
Richard Gush · Methvin
Version 1.1 · July 2026
Executive Summary
A feasibility budget is usually the least-informed, highest-stakes number in a project’s life. It is produced early, from limited data, and yet it is the figure against which site acquisition, funding, and design direction are decided. Most feasibility budgets are built from historical rates, benchmark comparisons, or a spreadsheet that cannot be quickly revised — and when a client, financier, or design partner asks how the number was reached, the honest answer is rarely more precise than “judgement applied to a benchmark.”
The Methvin Global Variables (GV) methodology closes that gap. A defined set of project parameters — site geometry, building form, structural system, programme assumptions, and financial settings — drives a connected network of formulas that generates building quantities, a construction programme, professional fee estimates, client-side provisions, and a resource-based cost plan built from individual labour, material, plant, and subcontract line items. Change one variable and every dependent output recalculates immediately, in the same working session.
The result is a feasibility figure that can be opened up rather than taken on faith: every quantity and cost traces back to the variable and formula that produced it, alternative configurations can be compared before a design direction is locked in, and the assumptions behind the number are available for review rather than buried in a spreadsheet only one person understands. The remainder of this paper sets out how that works, how it differs from conventional estimating approaches, where its limits are, and what a reviewer would actually see if they opened the model up.
The Problem
Understand why early-stage feasibility budgets are high-stakes and hard to revise — and who the Global Variables methodology is built for across development, finance, QS, design, and project management.
The Architecture
Explore what a Global Variable is, how a connected project model derives geometry, structure, services, programme, and fees, and the dependency chain that turns a variable into a cost.
Proof in Practice
See how the methodology differs from conventional takeoff and benchmarking, how resource-based cost substantiation works, and how scenario comparison and programme integration stay consistent.
Conclusion & Limitations
Review the commercial case, development and validation approach, appropriate-use limits, and an illustrative resource build-up extract from the model.