Marvin and his team consider? 

Marvin should have had subject matter experts to asses client expectations, overall market conditions, assensing the client expectation, project scope, timeline, budget constraints, and team expertise. Review the bidding documents and rely on historical data similar to this project. Throughout risk analysis and evalulating client relationship. 

2. TO bid or not to bid? 

Bidding has always been Marvin thing for this client he has work with before and where estimate costs was given/available. 

In this scenario bidding has high degree of uncertainty, meaning outcomes in terms of timelines and cost are hard to predict. 

Estimating is more recommended for long - term projects. There needs to be expert in the project domain, available resources, project scope clarity and potential profitability. Alignment with the long term business goals. Rather sit this one out has there is more cons than pros.