How we work
Augmentation that leaves capability behind.
The failure mode of contract engineering is a team that cannot maintain what it paid for. Everything below is designed around not doing that.
Four shapes, chosen to fit the problem.
We will tell you which one we think fits, and say so if the honest answer is a smaller engagement than you were planning.
Embedded engineers
Individual senior engineers join your existing squads and work as part of your team — your backlog, your ceremonies, your definition of done. You direct the work day to day.
- Best for
- Capacity gaps and specific skill shortfalls
- Typical
- 1–3 engineers, 3 months minimum
- Reporting
- Through your own delivery leads
- Billing
- Monthly, per engineer
Managed squad
A self-contained team with our own technical lead, working an agreed scope against outcomes. You get delivery reporting instead of day-to-day management overhead.
- Best for
- A workstream you want owned end to end
- Typical
- 3–6 people, 6 months upward
- Reporting
- Fortnightly delivery review
- Billing
- Monthly, per squad
Scoped project
A defined deliverable with fixed scope, milestones and written acceptance criteria. Our estimate, our process, your sign-off at each gate.
- Best for
- Discrete builds with a clear finish line
- Typical
- 6 weeks to 9 months
- Reporting
- Against milestone plan
- Billing
- Milestone-based
Specialist intervention
Short and sharp. A production incident needing root cause analysis, a performance problem nobody can locate, or an architecture review before you commit budget.
- Best for
- Problems with a deadline attached
- Typical
- 1–6 weeks
- Reporting
- Written findings and recommendation
- Billing
- Fixed fee or day rate
From first conversation to first commit.
Onboarding into an enterprise environment takes longer than most suppliers admit. We plan for it rather than billing you to sit and wait for access.
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01
Problem conversation
One session, no charge. We want the actual problem, the constraints you cannot move, and what a good outcome looks like to whoever signs the budget.
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02
Proposal and model
A written proposal naming the engagement model, the people, the rate or fee, assumptions, dependencies and exclusions. Nothing vague enough to argue about later.
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03
Access and environment
Vendor onboarding, security clearance, repository and environment access. We run this in parallel with contracting and flag realistic dates, because it is usually the longest pole.
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04
Orientation week
Our engineers read the codebase, sit with your team, and produce a short written orientation note — what they found, what concerns them, what they would change first. You get this whether or not you act on it.
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05
Delivery
Work in your process, in your repositories, visible on your board. No parallel universe where progress is only knowable at a monthly steering meeting.
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06
Handover
Documentation, runbooks and a working session with the people who will own it. Handover is a deliverable with an acceptance test, not an email on the last day.
How we behave when it gets difficult.
We work in your repositories, not ours
Everything we write lives in your source control from the first commit. There is never a moment where the work is held hostage to a final invoice, and your engineers can read what we are doing while we are doing it.
Skills transfer is a deliverable, not a courtesy
Where an engagement includes knowledge transfer, it is scoped, scheduled and signed off like any other deliverable — with named participants and a competency check at the end. Training that happens only if there is time left over does not happen.
We tell you the bad news early
Estimates move, dependencies fail and assumptions turn out wrong. We would rather have an uncomfortable conversation in week three than a surprise in month five. If we think the approach is wrong — including an approach you have already committed to — we will say so once, clearly, in writing.
We do not staff beyond our depth
If we do not have the right person for the work, we will say so rather than putting a junior into a senior seat and learning on your budget. Sometimes that means recommending another firm.
Security and compliance are not someone else’s problem
We work in regulated environments where change control, segregation of duties, POPIA obligations and audit evidence are constraints on how the work is done. We plan around them rather than discovering them at go-live.
The first conversation costs nothing.
Tell us the problem. We will tell you which model fits, what it would take, and whether we are the right firm for it.
Start a conversation