01 — Assess · 2–4 weeks
Find the expensive version of the problem
- Workflow and cost mapping
- Data and system inventory
- Failure and exception analysis
- A written recommendation you can act on without us
Approach
Decide first, then build quickly.
Four phases, sized to their real duration. Assess is small and deliberately inexpensive; build is the long phase; operate is open-ended.
Assess2–4 weeks
Architect2–4 weeks
Build8–20 weeks
OperateOngoing
AThe four phases
What happens in each phase.
Every phase ends in something you can act on: a written recommendation, an architecture position, working software, or an operating report.
02 — Architect · 2–4 weeks
Decide before building
- Target architecture and trade-offs
- Data model and contracts
- Approval, audit, and control design
- Delivery plan with real sequencing
03 — Build · 8–20 weeks
Ship in slices someone can use
- Working software every two weeks
- Migration alongside the live system
- Evaluation harnesses for anything AI-driven
- Operations tooling built with the operators
- Handover documentation written as you go
04 — Operate · Ongoing
Stay accountable
- Reliability and cost ownership
- Model and pipeline monitoring
- Roadmap and architecture review
- Transfer to your team when that is the right answer
BPrinciples
01The expensive problem is rarely the stated oneWe spend the first weeks finding out where the cost actually is. Sometimes the answer is that you should not build the thing you called us about.
02Architecture decisions get written downEvery significant trade-off is recorded with the alternatives and the reason. Your team should be able to argue with our decisions in two years.
03Ship in slices someone can useNot demos. A slice a real operator can run their real work through, alongside the system it will eventually replace.
04Design the exception path firstThe happy path is the easy half. Systems are judged on what they do when something is wrong, late, or ambiguous.
05Leave it maintainable by your teamDocumentation written as we go, not assembled at handover. If you want to take it in-house, that should be a decision, not a project.