Technical capabilities
Software you can understand, improve and keep running
The technical choices behind safer changes, clearer ownership and a practical recovery plan. We agree which practices and deliverables your system needs before work starts.
Build and connect
Backend systems and APIs
REST APIs, authentication, background processing and the business logic that ties a product together.
Web application engineering
Fast, accessible, search-friendly web experiences and the operational web applications behind them.
Mobile engineering
Cross-platform mobile applications connected to real backend systems.
Payments and third-party integrations
Connecting the systems a business already depends on.
Data architecture and reporting
Data structured so it can be reported on and trusted.
Operate and recover
Cloud infrastructure and DevOps
Automated, documented infrastructure and deployment pipelines.
Monitoring and observability
Checks and alerts that help spot failures and investigate customer problems.
Change with confidence
Security and access control
Practical security built into architecture and delivery, not bolted on afterwards.
Testing and quality assurance
Checks that reduce the risk of faults when software changes.
Ownership and handover
Documentation, ownership and handover
Systems that remain understandable to whoever maintains them next.
Project handover
Deliverables agreed for your project
An audit may deliver findings and a roadmap; a build may include code, tests and release instructions. The proposal sets out which of the following are included and how they will be handed over.
What useful engineering records look like
Illustrative example · fictional data
Handover note · booking connection
- Purpose
- Send approved bookings to accounting as invoice drafts.
- Ownership and access
- Business owns the accounts; named roles receive only the access they need.
- Recovery
- Review failed records, correct the cause and retry without duplicating invoices.
- Handover check
- A second maintainer follows the instructions using test data.
| Document entry | Illustrative content |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Send approved bookings to accounting as invoice drafts. |
| Ownership and access | Business owns the accounts; named roles receive only the access they need. |
| Recovery | Review failed records, correct the cause and retry without duplicating invoices. |
| Handover check | A second maintainer follows the instructions using test data. |
Illustrative example · fictional data
Deployment check · example release
- Staging checks
- Booking and invoice tests pass
- Ready for approval
- Recovery instructions
- Restore rehearsal recorded
- Owner approves release
- Post-release checks
- Test booking reaches accounting
- Continue monitoring
| Gate | Example result | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| Staging checks | Booking and invoice tests pass | Ready for approval |
| Recovery instructions | Restore rehearsal recorded | Owner approves release |
| Post-release checks | Test booking reaches accounting | Continue monitoring |
Illustrative example · fictional data
Monitoring output · example incident
- Queue delay
- Oldest update waiting 12 minutes
- Investigate connection
- Error records
- 3 updates rejected for missing account codes
- Correct mappings and replay
- Recovery validation
- 3 recovered records match invoice drafts
- Record resolution and review alert
| Signal | Observation | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Queue delay | Oldest update waiting 12 minutes | Investigate connection |
| Error records | 3 updates rejected for missing account codes | Correct mappings and replay |
| Recovery validation | 3 recovered records match invoice drafts | Record resolution and review alert |
Glossary
Plain-language glossary
Observability
Understanding how live software behaves by recording activity, measuring performance and following requests.
SLIs / SLOs
Measurements such as response time and failed requests, and the targets agreed for those measurements.
Latency
How long a request or action takes to complete.
Error rate
The proportion of requests or operations that fail.
Distributed tracing
Following a single request as it moves across multiple services, to find where time is spent or something fails.
Log aggregation
Collecting software activity records into one searchable place so problems are easier to investigate.
Rollback strategy
A planned way to safely undo a release if something goes wrong.
Incident management
A clear process for detecting, responding to and learning from production problems.