Case study · Software team
A company outgrew its freelancers and could not justify a team. We now run its engineering under a written agreement.
Nobody owned the whole job: intake, priorities, delivery, quality and upkeep. We took it on in steps, within limits the company set.
- Who
- A company with about forty staff and a product customers rely on, run by a managing director who would rather own the product than manage engineers.
- The problem
- Freelancers needed direction, an agency needed oversight, and nobody owned the whole job: what to build, in what order, to what standard, and who keeps it running.
- What we did
- Started with the AI software engineer on one product, then agreed a written scope that widened in steps as trust grew.
- The result
- Requests are taken in, ordered, delivered and checked under one written agreement, with regular written reports and a periodic review.
- Time
- Ongoing. A written agreement, reviewed periodically.
What was going on.
The company's product had become something customers depended on. Engineering had been a succession of freelancers and one agency. Each needed direction, and none owned the whole job. The managing director found themselves deciding the order of bug fixes, which is not why they had started a company.
A full engineering team was too much to hire and manage for a company of this size. The managing director wanted engineering run as a service, with one party accountable for it, and with the company keeping the decisions that were theirs.
What we found.
We did not agree to everything at once. We talked first about what engineering needed to cover, and whether it could be bounded and run responsibly. Then we started small, with the AI software engineer on one product, so both sides could see how the work flowed.
Once that worked, we wrote an agreement for the wider scope: what we own, what stays with the company and who approves what. Nothing widened until the managing director had agreed it in writing. Since then we take in requests, order and track them, deliver and verify the changes, and report in writing at an agreed rhythm.
The technical detail
The written agreement states what the arrangement covers and nothing outside it. The company sets the priorities and approves what the agreement reserves to it, such as spending, hiring and contracts, over which we have no authority. Everything we produce lives in repositories and tools the company owns. At each periodic review the arrangement is judged against the measures the managing director set, and the company decides to continue, change or stop.
What we did.
How we checked it.
These had to pass before we asked for sign-off.
- A written agreement existed, and the managing director had approved it, before any wider work started.
- Each delivered change met its agreed checks and carried its evidence.
- At each periodic review, the arrangement was judged against the measures the managing director had set.
What they have now.
The company has one written agreement, one stream of delivered and verified changes with their evidence, and regular written reports. At each review the managing director decides whether the arrangement continues, changes or stops. The work, the notes and the evidence all sit in tools the company owns, so ending it would mean a handover, not a rescue.
The managing director now sets priorities once a week and approves what the agreement reserves to them, and no longer decides the order of bug fixes.
What we did not do.
- We have no unsupervised access to production systems, and no authority over spending, hiring or contracts on the company's behalf.
- Anything not written into the agreement is not covered.
- We give no legal, security-certification or compliance sign-off.
- We promised no results before the agreement defined what the arrangement covers.
The service behind this.
If you want to own the product without managing an engineering department, start small and widen the agreement as trust is earned.
We run it for you
We run your engineering
Hand us a broad engineering responsibility within the limits you set. We talk first about what it should cover, then agree it in a written proposal.
Priced in a written proposal. Terms are set in the written proposal. Nothing is charged until you have agreed them.
More case studies.
One-off job
Checkout stopped taking orders after an update
Customers could fill a basket but not pay. We found the cause on a copy of the shop, fixed it and proved it with test orders.
Online store · Two days
One-off job
Genuine payment messages were being rejected
Paid customers still showed as unpaid. The company's code was checking the wrong thing. We fixed it without switching the check off.
Software team · Three working days
Project
Hundreds of products flagged in Google's shopping feed
Several problems at once, and every earlier fix had only revealed the next one. We grouped them by cause and worked through them in order.
Online store · Three weeks, mostly waiting for Google to reprocess
Get a price for something like this
You are asking about: We run your engineering.
Sending this is not an order. We check we can help, then agree what is included, safe access and the price in writing before any work. Prefer email? hello@syntheticindustry.ai.