Seven phases,
and a gate at each one.
Every phase ends with something you sign. Nothing moves forward on a verbal “looks good”, because that is the sentence every disputed software invoice starts with.
From first call to handover.
Scoping call — free
Forty-five minutes on the product, the users, the money model and the deadline. You get: an honest read on whether it should be built, and whether we are the right people to build it.
Validation sprint
Discovery, flows, prototype, UI design, functional specification and architecture outline. Gate: you sign off the specification. You keep it whether or not you build with us.
Fixed-price Statement of Work
Scope, deliverables, architecture, milestones, dates, acceptance criteria and one number. Gate: countersignature plus the 30% mobilisation instalment.
Design & architecture
Final UI, data model, API contract and infrastructure stood up in your accounts. Gate: design sign-off plus the second 30%.
Engineering sprints
Two-week cycles, each ending in a demo on staging and a written build note. Out-of-scope items become priced change requests before they are built.
UAT & hardening
You test against the acceptance criteria. Defects are fixed at our cost; new ideas become phase two. Gate: UAT sign-off plus the third 30%.
Launch & handover
Production deployment, monitoring, documentation, team walkthrough, and the 60-day warranty clock starts. Gate: final 10%.
Thirty, thirty,
thirty, ten.
Tied to gates rather than to the calendar. We are never more than one instalment ahead of delivered work, and the final tranche is only due once the product is live.
30% — on SOW signature
Mobilisation: team allocated, environments created, architecture work begun.
30% — on design sign-off
Full UI, data model and API contract approved by you before engineering scales up.
30% — on UAT sign-off
The product meets the acceptance criteria in the SOW, tested by you on staging.
10% — on go-live
Deployed to production, handover complete, documentation delivered.
How changes are
handled, in four rules.
This is where fixed-price engagements normally break down. Writing the rules in advance is what stops it happening.
- Anything not in the specification is a change. Including things everyone assumed were obvious. That is not pedantry — it is the only way a fixed price can mean anything.
- Every change is quoted in writing first. Cost, timeline impact and any knock-on effect on other items, before a line of code is written.
- You approve or decline. Nothing is assumed. Declined changes go into the phase-two backlog rather than disappearing.
- Defects are never changes. If it does not match the acceptance criteria, it is our problem and it is fixed at our cost.
What counts as a defect
- Behaviour that contradicts the written acceptance criteria
- A feature in the spec that does not work as described
- Errors, crashes or data loss under normal use
- A documented browser or device where it does not function
What counts as a change
- A feature that is not in the specification
- A different rule, threshold or workflow than the one signed off
- A new integration, platform or user role
- Design revisions after design sign-off
- Scope added because a third party changed its API mid-build
What we need from you
- One named decision-maker who can sign off scope and design
- Availability for the discovery workshops in phase 01
- Access to any existing systems we must integrate with
- Sign-off turnaround within five working days at each gate
- Someone to run UAT properly against the criteria
- Honest answers about budget and deadline constraints
What you get from us
- A specification you own, whether or not you build with us
- One fixed price, in writing, before build starts
- A demo and a written note every two weeks
- Change requests priced before any work is done
- Delays disclosed in the week they occur
- Full handover, documentation and a 60-day warranty
Bring us the idea. We’ll bring back a scope you can hold us to.
A scoping call costs nothing and takes forty-five minutes. If the product does not need building yet, or needs building by someone else, we would rather say so in that call than three months into a contract.