Our process

31 phases. One accountable delivery system.

Every phase reduces uncertainty before the next investment is made, from discovery through long term scaling.

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Delivery phases

Delivery stages

Accountable team

Hidden decisions

DiscoveryDefinitionDesignEngineeringQualityReleaseOperate and scale

5 phases

Discovery

First conversation and qualification

Understand what the organisation wants to achieve and confirm that we are the right partner for the work.

What happens

Structured intake call with the decision makers
Capture business goal, timeline and budget range
Identify the internal owner of the engagement

What you receive

Written summary of the opportunity
Initial suitability assessment

Decision before moving on

Proceed to a deeper discovery session or refer the request elsewhere with a clear explanation.

Business goal and success definition

Translate a request into measurable outcomes so every later decision has a reference point.

What happens

Define the commercial or operational result expected
Agree the measures that will prove success
Record constraints such as regulation, seasonality and internal capacity

What you receive

Goal statement with success measures
Constraint register

Decision before moving on

Confirm that the outcome is achievable and worth the investment being considered.

Stakeholder and user research

Learn how real people work today so the product fits their reality rather than an assumption.

What happens

Interviews with stakeholders and end users
Observation of current workflows
Review of support tickets, complaints and internal requests

What you receive

Research findings summary
User groups and their needs

Decision before moving on

Confirm the problem understanding before any scope is written.

Current state and system audit

Map what already exists so we reuse value and avoid repeating known problems.

What happens

Review existing systems, data, integrations and hosting
Assess code quality, security posture and documentation
Identify dependencies owned by third parties

What you receive

Current state map
Technical risk list

Decision before moving on

Choose between improving what exists and building new capability.

Market and competitor review

Understand the standard the product must meet in its market.

What happens

Review comparable products and expected features
Identify differentiators worth investing in
Check accessibility and performance benchmarks in the sector

What you receive

Comparison summary
Differentiation priorities

Decision before moving on

Agree the level of ambition for the first release.

6 phases

Definition

Scope and requirement definition

Write down exactly what will be delivered and what will not.

What happens

Break outcomes into capabilities and user stories
Write acceptance criteria for each capability
Separate first release from later releases

What you receive

Scope document
Acceptance criteria per capability

Decision before moving on

Approve the scope baseline that the estimate will be based on.

Solution and architecture options

Compare realistic technical routes before committing budget to one of them.

What happens

Prepare two or three architecture options
Compare cost, speed, risk and long term ownership
Confirm data residency and hosting requirements

What you receive

Architecture option comparison
Recommended approach

Decision before moving on

Select the architecture and record why the alternatives were not chosen.

Technology selection

Choose tools that suit the system, the team and the operating reality.

What happens

Match requirements to language, framework and platform choices
Check internal skills and hiring availability
Confirm licensing, support and total cost

What you receive

Technology decision record
Skills and support plan

Decision before moving on

Lock the core stack for the first release.

Estimation, plan and commercial agreement

Give the client a plan and price they can rely on.

What happens

Estimate effort by capability
Prepare the delivery schedule and milestones
Agree payment terms, change process and responsibilities

What you receive

Delivery plan with milestones
Signed agreement and change process

Decision before moving on

Formal approval to begin delivery.

Team formation and onboarding

Put the right named people on the work with clear accountability.

What happens

Assign engineers, designers, quality and delivery roles
Grant access to systems, repositories and environments
Agree communication rhythm and escalation path

What you receive

Named team with responsibilities
Communication and reporting plan

Decision before moving on

Confirm the team has everything required to start.

Risk, compliance and governance setup

Identify what could go wrong and decide how it will be controlled.

What happens

Build the risk register with owners and mitigations
Confirm privacy, regulatory and contractual obligations
Define approval gates and decision authority

What you receive

Risk register
Governance and approval model

Decision before moving on

Accept the residual risk level before build begins.

4 phases

Design

Information architecture and content structure

Organise information so people can find and understand it.

What happens

Structure navigation, entities and content types
Define naming and taxonomy
Plan content ownership and editing workflow

What you receive

Information architecture map
Content model

Decision before moving on

Approve the structure before visual design begins.

Experience design and prototyping

Test journeys cheaply before engineering effort is spent.

What happens

Wireframe the primary journeys
Build an interactive prototype
Review the prototype with real users and stakeholders

What you receive

Interactive prototype
Journey decisions and revisions

Decision before moving on

Confirm the journeys that will be built.

Visual design and design system

Create a consistent interface language that scales across the product.

What happens

Define colour, typography, spacing and component rules
Design key screens in full detail
Document states, feedback and error presentation

What you receive

Design system and tokens
Approved screen designs

Decision before moving on

Sign off the visual direction and component library.

Accessibility and inclusive design review

Make sure the product can be used by people with different needs and devices.

What happens

Check colour contrast, focus order and keyboard journeys
Review copy clarity and form guidance
Plan assistive technology testing

What you receive

Accessibility requirements per screen
Review notes and fixes

Decision before moving on

Confirm the accessibility standard the build must meet.

6 phases

Engineering

Environment and foundation setup

Prepare a reliable engineering foundation before feature work starts.

What happens

Create repositories, branching rules and coding standards
Provision development, staging and production environments
Configure secrets management and access control

What you receive

Working environments
Engineering standards documentation

Decision before moving on

Confirm the foundation is ready for feature delivery.

Data model and database implementation

Give the product a trustworthy data foundation.

What happens

Implement schema, keys, constraints and indexes
Define migration and versioning approach
Plan backup, retention and recovery

What you receive

Versioned database schema
Backup and recovery plan

Decision before moving on

Approve the data model before dependent features are built.

Core service and business logic build

Implement the rules that make the product useful.

What happens

Build services around business responsibilities
Implement validation and error handling
Write unit tests alongside the logic

What you receive

Working core services
Automated unit test suite

Decision before moving on

Confirm the core logic behaves as the acceptance criteria describe.

Interface implementation

Turn approved designs into a responsive and accessible interface.

What happens

Build components from the design system
Implement responsive layouts for all target screens
Connect the interface to live data

What you receive

Implemented screens and components
Responsive behaviour verified

Decision before moving on

Accept each screen against its design and criteria.

Integration and third party connection

Connect the product to the systems it depends on without hidden failure.

What happens

Implement payment, messaging, enterprise and analytics integrations
Handle retries, timeouts and failure states
Test against provider sandbox environments

What you receive

Working integrations with documented contracts
Failure handling behaviour

Decision before moving on

Confirm every integration behaves correctly under failure as well as success.

Automation, artificial intelligence and workflow features

Add automation only where it produces measurable value and can be supervised.

What happens

Identify decisions suitable for automation
Implement models or rules with review and override paths
Measure quality and cost of each automated step

What you receive

Automated workflows with safeguards
Quality measurement approach

Decision before moving on

Keep, adjust or remove each automated step based on evidence.

5 phases

Quality

Code review and engineering quality control

Keep the codebase understandable and maintainable as it grows.

What happens

Review every change against agreed standards
Track technical debt with owners
Run static analysis and dependency checks

What you receive

Reviewed change history
Technical debt register

Decision before moving on

Block changes that would reduce long term maintainability.

Functional and regression testing

Prove the product does what was agreed and keeps doing it.

What happens

Execute manual and automated functional tests
Maintain a regression suite for critical journeys
Track defects with severity and owners

What you receive

Test execution reports
Regression automation suite

Decision before moving on

Confirm every critical journey passes before release planning.

Performance and load testing

Confirm the product stays usable under real and peak demand.

What happens

Define expected and peak load profiles
Run load, stress and endurance tests
Tune queries, caching and delivery

What you receive

Performance baseline and results
Tuning actions completed

Decision before moving on

Accept the performance profile or invest in further optimisation.

Security testing and hardening

Reduce the chance and impact of a security incident.

What happens

Review authentication, authorisation and data protection
Run vulnerability scanning and targeted testing
Fix findings by severity and retest

What you receive

Security findings and fixes
Hardening checklist completed

Decision before moving on

Confirm no high severity issue remains open before release.

User acceptance testing

Let the people who will use the product confirm it works for them.

What happens

Prepare realistic acceptance scenarios and data
Support client testers through each scenario
Record and resolve accepted feedback

What you receive

Signed acceptance results
Agreed change list

Decision before moving on

Formal client acceptance of the release scope.

2 phases

Release

Release preparation and data migration

Make the move to production predictable and reversible.

What happens

Prepare the release runbook and rollback plan
Trial and validate data migration
Confirm monitoring, alerts and support readiness

What you receive

Release runbook with rollback
Validated migration results

Decision before moving on

Approve the go live window.

Deployment and go live

Release to production with control and visibility.

What happens

Deploy through automated pipelines
Verify critical journeys in production
Monitor closely through the first hours of use

What you receive

Live product
Post release verification record

Decision before moving on

Confirm stable operation or execute the rollback plan.

3 phases

Operate and scale

Handover, documentation and training

Give the client full ownership of what was built.

What happens

Deliver architecture, operations and support documentation
Train administrators and internal support staff
Transfer accounts, repositories and credentials

What you receive

Complete documentation set
Trained internal owners

Decision before moving on

Confirm the client can operate the product independently.

Monitoring, support and continuous improvement

Keep the product healthy and improve it with evidence.

What happens

Monitor availability, errors and business outcomes
Operate agreed support response levels
Deliver regular improvement releases

What you receive

Operational reporting
Improvement release history

Decision before moving on

Prioritise the next improvements from real usage data.

Scaling, roadmap and long term partnership

Plan the next stage of growth before capacity or cost becomes a problem.

What happens

Review growth, cost and capacity trends
Plan new capabilities, markets or regions
Refresh architecture and technology choices where needed

What you receive

Forward roadmap
Scaling and cost plan

Decision before moving on

Agree the next investment cycle with clear expected outcomes.

Build the next critical product with us.

Bring us the business problem. We’ll help shape the right technology response.

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