Blog
Field notes on IT project management, technical delivery, and digital transformation.
Notes
Technical due diligence checklist for non-technical founders
Nine areas to check before you invest in, buy or rescue a codebase, and why most serious findings are about access and ownership, not code.
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What a code audit checks, and what it costs
What a useful code audit covers, real findings from audits of production projects, what drives the price, and the questions to ask any auditor.
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Fractional CTO vs dev agency vs in-house: how to decide
What each option buys you, how fractional CTO work is priced, what the titles really mean, and the combination that fails most often.
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PRD template for an MVP: structure, worked example and mistakes
The eight-section PRD template I use for MVPs, a worked example of testable acceptance criteria, and the five mistakes that make quotes impossible to compare.
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CV parsing: deterministic engine or machine learning?
How I split CV analysis between a trained classifier and a rule engine, with measured results: 3,254 CVs in 19.7 seconds and 0.795 F1 on 5,617 real CVs.
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Multi-tenant SaaS architecture explained for founders
The three tenant-isolation models, what goes wrong in practice, and the questions to ask a vendor before you accept a multi-tenant estimate.
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Acceptance criteria examples for non-technical founders
Ten ready-to-adapt acceptance criteria for common features, the Given/When/Then pattern, and the test that separates a criterion from a wish.
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UAT checklist before every release
A user acceptance testing checklist used as a go/no-go gate: what to prepare, what to test, and what to confirm before go-live.
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Code ownership and handover clauses for your dev contract
Five clauses to put in a software development contract: ownership, accounts, documentation, payment and exit terms, plus how to spot lock-in.
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How to compare software development quotes line by line
Why two quotes for the same project differ by 2x, and an eight-line grid to compare them fairly once every vendor quotes against the same written scope.
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Why your software estimate doubled: 7 causes
Seven recurring reasons software estimates double, with real examples, and what to ask before accepting an estimate.
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Rescue a failing software project: the first 30 days
A week-by-week plan to rescue a failing software project: facts first, then a continue/replace/stop decision, then stabilisation.
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Build vs buy for software: a decision framework
Five questions to decide whether to build or buy software, the costs people forget, and three real examples.
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SaaS due diligence red flags: what to look for in a codebase
Ten red flags that decide SaaS acquisitions and investments, from tenant isolation to untested backups, with real audit findings.
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Monolith vs microservices for a small team
When to start with one deployable and when a split is justified, with three real splits and one deliberate merge from my own projects.
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Choosing a tech stack for a B2B SaaS MVP
Five criteria that matter more than the framework, the stacks I have shipped products on and why, and red flags in a vendor proposal.
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How to evaluate an offshore development team
An eight-point checklist, signals of a strong or troubled team, and a monthly routine for keeping visibility when the team is far away.
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AI-assisted spec writing: what the 40% actually means
How I use generative AI to structure scoping notes, what the roughly 40% time saving does and does not measure, and how to measure your own baseline.
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AI coding assistant rollout playbook for a 5-10 developer team
A five-step rollout: process review, baseline, one installed workflow, a hands-on workshop and a playbook the team keeps.
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Local model vs hosted AI API for a production feature
When to run your own model and when to call a hosted API, with two real designs, a comparison table and guardrails that apply to both.
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How long does an MVP take? Real data points
Real durations from my own projects, what drives MVP timelines, and how to estimate yours without trusting a universal range.
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24 questions to ask a software development company
Twenty-four written questions in six groups, what a good answer sounds like, and what a weak one gives away.
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How to write a specification for an IT project
A useful specification doesn't describe a solution — it describes a problem, its constraints, and what "done" means. The seven-part structure I use, and the three classic traps.
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How to choose an IT vendor without the project slipping
Price and portfolio are the two least predictive criteria. The questions that actually reveal how a vendor will behave once the project gets difficult.
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The 5 warning signs a digital project is about to slip
A project never derails overnight. It gives recognisable signals weeks in advance, and these five are the most reliable.
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