Services
Six engineering services, described in detail
The following are proposed service descriptions presented for review. They set out scope, typical deliverables and relevant use cases. They do not describe completed projects and make no claims about past results.
- 01Custom software development
- 02Web applications
- 03Cloud and DevOps
- 04API development and systems integration
- 05Quality assurance
- 06Software maintenance and modernisation
Service 01
Custom software development
Applications built around a specific operational process, from domain model to deployed system.
Scope
- Requirements analysis with the people who perform the process daily
- Domain modelling, data model design and interface definition
- Backend service implementation, business rules and validation logic
- User interface implementation for the roles that operate the system
- Automated test suites at unit, integration and end-to-end level
- Deployment configuration and environment setup
Typical deliverables
- Running application in the agreed environments
- Source code and infrastructure definitions in repositories you control
- Automated tests and a pipeline that executes them on every change
- Technical documentation: architecture notes, setup guide, operational runbook
Relevant use cases
- Replacing spreadsheet-driven operations with a validated, auditable application
- Building a planning, scheduling or approval workflow that no off-the-shelf product fits
- Implementing calculation or pricing logic where results must be reproducible and traceable
Service 02
Web applications
Browser-based systems that stay usable on mobile networks and remain readable to crawlers.
Scope
- Responsive interface implementation with semantic markup and keyboard operability
- Authentication, session handling, role and permission models
- Form handling, file upload and processing, background jobs
- Server-side or static rendering where content must be available without client scripting
- Performance work: payload budgets, image sizing, caching, query profiling
- Accessibility checks including contrast, focus order and heading hierarchy
Typical deliverables
- Deployed web application with staging and production environments
- Component structure and design tokens documented for future work
- Performance and accessibility findings recorded before release
- Metadata, sitemap and crawler configuration where the application is public
Relevant use cases
- A customer portal exposing data currently sent out by email
- An internal tool that must work on tablets in a warehouse or on site
- A public content platform where search visibility depends on server-rendered pages
Service 03
Cloud and DevOps
Infrastructure described in code, delivered by pipelines and observable in production.
Scope
- Hosting architecture design: compute, storage, networking and access boundaries
- Infrastructure as code with reviewed, version-controlled definitions
- Containerisation and environment parity between staging and production
- CI/CD pipelines covering build, test, scan, deploy and rollback
- Monitoring, log aggregation, alerting and backup with tested restores
- Cost visibility, right-sizing and autoscaling rules
Typical deliverables
- Reproducible environment definitions that can rebuild infrastructure from scratch
- Pipeline configuration with identical steps across environments
- Dashboards and alert rules tied to user-visible symptoms
- Operational runbook covering deployment, rollback, backup and restore
Relevant use cases
- Moving a manually administered server to reproducible, automated infrastructure
- Replacing hand-run deployments with a pipeline and a documented rollback path
- Introducing monitoring and backups to a system that currently has neither
Service 04
API development and systems integration
Deliberate data flow between systems, with clear ownership and explicit failure handling.
Scope
- Integration analysis: which system owns which data and how conflicts are resolved
- HTTP API design and implementation with versioning and authentication
- Event-driven and queue-based messaging, including retries and dead letter handling
- Scheduled synchronisation jobs with idempotent processing
- Data mapping, transformation and reconciliation reporting
- Wrapping legacy systems that expose no usable interface
Typical deliverables
- Documented API contract, published schema and example requests
- Integration services with logging, retry policy and alerting on failure
- Reconciliation view or report for records that cannot be matched automatically
- Client credentials model with scoped access and usage logging
Relevant use cases
- Keeping stock and order data consistent between a shop and an ERP system
- Giving a partner programmatic, rate-limited access to internal data
- Removing recurring manual file transfers between two applications
Service 05
Quality assurance
Verification designed with the system, executed automatically and reported in plain terms.
Scope
- Test strategy covering unit, integration, end-to-end and contract tests
- Test automation in the delivery pipeline with meaningful failure output
- Exploratory and regression testing of user-facing workflows
- Performance testing against expected and peak load profiles
- Security review of authentication, authorisation, input handling and dependencies
- Accessibility and cross-device verification at mobile, tablet and desktop widths
Typical deliverables
- Executable test suites maintained alongside the application code
- Pipeline configuration that blocks merges on failing checks
- Written test strategy and coverage summary for the agreed scope
- Findings reports with reproduction steps and severity assessment
Relevant use cases
- Establishing an automated safety net before refactoring a fragile application
- Adding load testing ahead of a seasonal traffic increase
- Reviewing an application's access control model before it is opened to external users
Service 06
Software maintenance and modernisation
Keeping existing systems secure and adaptable, and replacing ageing parts incrementally.
Scope
- Codebase and infrastructure assessment with a prioritised risk list
- Dependency, runtime and platform upgrades applied through a tested pipeline
- Characterisation tests that capture current behaviour before refactoring
- Incremental replacement of components behind stable interfaces
- Performance investigation and database tuning
- Ongoing monitoring review, incident handling and improvement backlog
Typical deliverables
- Assessment report with findings, risks and a sequenced remediation plan
- Upgraded, patched system with the upgrade path documented
- Test coverage for the behaviour preserved during modernisation
- Maintenance arrangement with agreed scope and cadence
Relevant use cases
- Taking over a system whose original developers are no longer available
- Clearing years of deferred dependency upgrades without changing behaviour
- Splitting a monolithic application so parts can be replaced independently
Engagement
How a service is agreed
Each engagement begins with a discovery phase that turns the description above into a specific scope: the outcomes to be delivered, the acceptance criteria for each, the environments involved and the constraints that cannot change. Nothing is committed before that scope is written down and agreed.
Services can be combined. A modernisation project, for example, usually includes quality assurance work to establish a safety net and cloud work to make deployment repeatable.
To discuss a service, write to [email protected].