Process
How an engagement runs.
The same six phases every time, so you always know what is happening now and what you get at the end of it.
01
Discover
Week 1–2We interview the people who will use the system every day, not only the people commissioning it, and audit whatever is running today. The goal is to find the real constraint before anyone opens a design tool.
- Stakeholder interviews
- Current-system audit
- Scope document
02
Design
Week 2–6Research, information architecture and interface design, with the system architecture planned in the same weeks rather than after it. A screen the data model cannot serve gets caught here, while changing it is still free.
- Flows and wireframes
- High-fidelity UI
- System architecture
03
Develop
Week 5–14Sprints with a review at the end of each one, so the first time you see the system is not the week it is due. Accessibility and performance are checked automatically on every commit rather than audited at the end.
- Working software each sprint
- API and schema
- Test coverage
04
Deploy
Week 12–16Production launch with a zero-downtime strategy, and with backups and monitoring provisioned as part of go-live. Where an old system is being replaced, the two run side by side until the new one has earned the switch.
- Production environment
- CI/CD pipeline
- Backup and rollback plan
05
Manage
OngoingThe subscription phase. Monitoring, security patching and bug fixes against a tiered SLA, through a support channel that reaches someone who knows your system rather than a queue.
- SLA response times
- Monthly security patching
- Quarterly health report
06
Scale
OngoingFeature and infrastructure expansion as the business grows: a second branch, a new department, a traffic profile nobody forecast. All of it planned against the same architecture, so growth stays a configuration change.
- Capacity planning
- Feature request pipeline
- Infrastructure expansion