Four phases. Zero surprises.
Every engagement follows the same disciplined arc. Each phase ends with a gate: a concrete deliverable and a decision you make with full information.
Discover
Duration: 2–4 weeks. We interview stakeholders, inventory your current systems, map data flows, and quantify the cost of the status quo. The goal is a shared, factual picture — not opinions about what might be wrong.
Gate deliverable: a discovery report with findings, risks, a measurable definition of success, and a recommended scope. You decide whether to proceed, adjust, or stop. Roughly one in five engagements ends here by mutual agreement — and that is a success too.
Architect
Duration: 3–6 weeks. We design the target state: system boundaries, data ownership, integration contracts, infrastructure topology, and security model. Every material choice is written as an architecture decision record with alternatives and trade-offs.
Gate deliverable: a complete architecture package — blueprints, cost model, phased delivery plan, and risk register — reviewed line by line with your team until it earns sign-off.
Build
Duration: scoped per project. Delivery proceeds in two-week cycles, each ending with working, tested software you can touch. Integration, automated testing, and documentation run continuously rather than at the end, so quality never becomes a launch-week crisis.
Gate deliverable: at the end of every cycle, a demo and a transparent progress report against the plan. Scope changes are handled through written change requests with clear cost and schedule impact — never quietly absorbed.
Operate
Duration: ongoing. Launch is the midpoint, not the finish line. We hand over runbooks, monitoring dashboards, and on-call playbooks, train your operators, and stay engaged through a hypercare period. You then choose: full internal operation, or our managed operations service with defined service levels.
Gate deliverable: a formal operations handover certificate — your team demonstrates it can run the system before we step back.
What the process protects
Your budget
Fixed-scope phases with gates mean you never write a blank check. You fund one phase at a time, always knowing what the next dollar buys.
Your timeline
Weekly demos and continuous integration surface delays in days. We re-plan openly instead of discovering slippage at the deadline.
Your ownership
All artifacts — code, docs, credentials, infrastructure — live in accounts you control from the first week of the engagement.
Your team
Knowledge transfer is a deliverable, not an accident. Your engineers review every decision record and pair with us throughout the build.
Before the first call
Can we skip discovery if we know what we need?
We can shorten it, but never skip it. Even a one-week validation sprint routinely surfaces constraints that change the design — and costs almost nothing compared to building on a wrong assumption.
Do you work with our existing vendors?
Yes. We frequently design the architecture while incumbent vendors or internal teams execute parts of the build. Clear contracts and interfaces make multi-party delivery work.
What if the discovery says we should not build anything?
Then we say so, in writing, with the reasoning. Sometimes the right answer is configuring what you already own. A saved budget builds more trust than a sold project.
Phase one starts with a conversation.
Bring your hardest systems problem. The discovery call is free, candid, and under no obligation.
Schedule Discovery