How we work
Terms
Fixed fee. Every engagement is scoped in writing and priced before work starts. The price moves only when the scope does, and a scope change is a document both parties sign. We do not bill by the hour and we do not bill for overruns.
Staged payment. Fees are paid in three stages against witnessed milestones: on commencement, on delivery of the working system for acceptance, and on transfer. Nothing is due for work that has not been shown.
Intellectual property. The intellectual property in what we build transfers to the client on payment of the final stage. Until then it is held by the company. After it, the client owns the source, the documentation and the right to do anything with them, including taking them elsewhere.
Code custody. Client code lives on the company's own machines and private infrastructure for the whole build. It is never placed on a third-party hosted repository or a public cloud service. We consider this a security obligation to the client, not a preference.
Evidence. Every stage closes on a written evidence document, with test counts, log citations and review findings a client can read for themselves. A status call is not evidence.
Method
Twelve steps, run in order, on every software and AI engagement. Each produces a document. Several have a gate that must be passed before the next step begins.
Intake and brief
Everything the client tells us is turned into sourced requirements, a list of open questions with an owner for each, and a list of inputs we need. Fact is separated from claim from the first day.
Options, costing and quote
The technical routes are laid out in the client's terms with what each costs and commits to. The quote, the invoice schedule and the statement of work are written together and read side by side for contradictions.
Design and prototype
A clickable prototype of every screen, opened from a file with no network, is approved by the client before any production code is written. The design pack and the architecture follow from it.
Specification
The governing documents are assembled, ranked and locked. From this point the specification is the source of truth, and a change to it is a change to the contract.
Roadmap and gates
Work is ordered by dependency. Long-lead items go first. Each phase has a gate with pass or fail criteria written before the phase begins.
Project setup
Source control, backups, a contained build environment and a rule for how bundles are produced. The first act is to make a deliberately failing test fail, and to cite the log line where it did.
Build in batches
Each batch is named, built to green, and closed with an evidence document citing test counts and log lines. Nothing is reported as done that has not been shown to run.
Independent review
Every batch is reviewed by reviewers who did not build it, each looking for a different kind of failure. Findings are consolidated, decided once, and recorded with the reason. Nothing is re-litigated.
Verification and release
Operational scripts are rehearsed on a real host. Live probes are run. A person accepts the system in a real browser. The go-live checklist is completed and signed.
Handover
The client receives the source, the documentation, an operator guide checked against the repository, and the result of a timed restore drill, so that the system can be run and recovered without us.
Retrospective
After go-live, a written retrospective records what the engagement cost against the quote, what changed, and what the next engagement should do differently.
Support
Optional. A fixed monthly retainer for updates, monitoring and change requests, or nothing at all. The system is designed to be maintainable by anyone the client chooses.
Controls
Modern AI tooling is used within the method, under an operator who decides what is built, in what order and to what standard, controls the machine it is built and tested on, runs the independent reviews, reads the evidence and talks to the client.
Some things are never delegated to a tool or a supplier: choosing the next item, every decision on the decision ledger, the machine the code is built and tested on, source control and backups, secrets and accounts, client communication and commercial documents, the human acceptance pass, and any destructive or irreversible act.
These controls are what make a fixed fee possible. They are also why every engagement produces more written evidence than a client is used to receiving.