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Guides

Practical reference guides for teams that build, buy, and run software. Updated regularly, built to last.

Browse by category

Each category covers a specific area of software delivery. Dive into the topic that matters most to your team right now.

27 guides

AI and Code

AI tools, IP ownership, attribution, and compliance for enterprise teams.

6 guides

API and Integration

REST, GraphQL, gRPC, Azure API Management, and integration patterns.

19 guides

Build, Buy, or Replace

Decision frameworks for build vs buy, SaaS replacement, and migration planning.

10 guides

Design and UX

UX and UI design for custom software, AI in the design process, brand guidelines, design systems, and accessibility.

22 guides

Development Practice

DevOps, CI/CD, testing, estimation, and delivery patterns.

14 guides

Legacy Modernisation

Recognising hidden costs, choosing a modernisation strategy, and planning migration from legacy systems.

17 guides

Legal and Contracts

Software development contracts, IP licensing, liability, and the legal terms that shape bespoke build engagements.

10 guides

Teams and Support

Choosing partners, managing handovers, and outsourcing application support.

Recently updated

The latest guides from across all categories.

AI and Code 12 min read

What Assured AI Development Looks Like: Evidence from Our Own Delivery

What assured AI-assisted development looks like, shown with our own published delivery data, and the evidence to ask a supplier for before trusting theirs.

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Development Practice 12 min read

In-House DevOps vs DevOps-as-a-Service: A Cost and Capability Comparison

Should you hire a DevOps engineer or work with a DevOps-as-a-Service partner? A practical comparison of cost, coverage, risk, and how AI-augmented delivery changes the economics.

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AI and Code 15 min read

Governing Software Your Staff Build with AI

How to govern the apps, agents and automations staff build with AI tools: what to allow, how to find what exists, and when a tool needs proper support.

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Teams and Support 13 min read

Managed Support vs Hiring a Developer or DevOps Engineer

Should you hire a developer or DevOps engineer to run your software, or use a managed support partner? A UK comparison of cost, cover, breadth and risk.

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Development Practice 12 min read

Penetration Test or Production Readiness Review: Which Do You Need?

A penetration test attacks a running system; a production readiness review checks the code. When you need each, which to do first, and why order matters.

Read guide
Development Practice 15 min read

Production Readiness Checklist for AI-Built Apps: OWASP ASVS and Cyber Essentials Plus

A production readiness checklist for AI-built apps, mapped to OWASP ASVS 5.0 and Cyber Essentials Plus, including what Cyber Essentials Plus does not cover.

Read guide

AI and Code

View all 27 guides

AI tools, IP ownership, attribution, and compliance for enterprise teams.

AI and Code

What Assured AI Development Looks Like: Evidence from Our Own Delivery

What assured AI-assisted development looks like, shown with our own published delivery data, and the evidence to ask a supplier for before trusting theirs.

12 min read
AI and Code

Governing Software Your Staff Build with AI

How to govern the apps, agents and automations staff build with AI tools: what to allow, how to find what exists, and when a tool needs proper support.

15 min read
AI and Code

RAG Accuracy for Technical Documents: Chunking, Search, and Evaluation

Why RAG accuracy over technical documents depends on structure-aware chunking, hybrid search, and an expert-agreed evaluation set more than on the model you choose.

12 min read
AI and Code

Is Claude GDPR Compliant? Anthropic Assurance for UK Businesses

How UK businesses get GDPR and ISO 27001 assurance over Anthropic's Claude: commercial terms, the DPA, certifications, EU data residency options, retention settings, and a supplier due diligence checklist.

12 min read

API and Integration

View all 6 guides

REST, GraphQL, gRPC, Azure API Management, and integration patterns.

API and Integration

Backend for Frontend (BFF): API Patterns for Mobile and Web Clients

When to use the BFF pattern, how it compares to a single API or API gateway, and how to implement it on Azure. Practical architecture for teams serving mobile, web, and internal clients.

18 min read
API and Integration

Mobile API Best Practices: Building Backends That Scale

How to design, secure, and operate APIs for mobile apps. Protocol choice, authentication flows, offline sync, push notifications, versioning, and Azure architecture patterns.

13 min read
API and Integration

REST vs GraphQL vs gRPC: Choosing the Right API Style for Enterprise Systems

A practical comparison of REST, GraphQL, gRPC, and tRPC for enterprise teams: when each style fits, the trade-offs, and a decision matrix.

17 min read
API and Integration

Extending a Ferry Reservation System: An API Layer Architecture

How to build custom apps, disruption tools, and analytics on top of a ferry reservation platform using an operator-owned API layer, without touching the core.

14 min read

Build, Buy, or Replace

View all 19 guides

Decision frameworks for build vs buy, SaaS replacement, and migration planning.

Build, Buy, or Replace

SaaS to Custom Software Migration: A 90-Day Playbook

How to migrate from SaaS to custom software: getting your data out, running both in parallel, cutting over safely, and exiting the contract.

10 min read
Build, Buy, or Replace

Build In-House with AI or Use a Development Partner? An Honest Decision Guide

AI coding tools make in-house builds genuinely viable. A balanced decision guide for CTOs: when to build with your own team, when a partner earns its fee, and how to compare total cost honestly.

14 min read
Build, Buy, or Replace

How franchise payments and payouts should work

How a franchise network collects payments and pays its franchisees: connected accounts with Stripe Connect, Direct Debit, and who holds the funds and the risk.

10 min read
Build, Buy, or Replace

Replacing Your Tuition Centre Management System

When a tuition network outgrows generic class-management software: the build-vs-buy framework, the size threshold, migration reality, and licence economics.

12 min read

Design and UX

View all 10 guides

UX and UI design for custom software, AI in the design process, brand guidelines, design systems, and accessibility.

Design and UX

AI-Friendly Brand Guidelines: What Your Brand Agency Should Give a Software Team

What your brand agency should give a software team so AI design tools such as Claude Design can apply your brand: palette, fonts, logos, and examples.

12 min read
Design and UX

Can AI Do UX Design? Where AI Helps and Where People Decide

What AI does well in UX design, from card sorting to synthesis, where people must decide, and how to use research data safely under UK GDPR.

12 min read
Design and UX

Design or Prototype? When to Use Each, and How to Test Before You Build

When to design and when to prototype, how to test either with real users before the build, and how AI tools such as Claude make moving between them cheaper.

11 min read
Design and UX

Claude Design to Claude Code: How We Move Designs Between Them

How we move designs between Claude Design, Claude chats, and Claude Code with the .zip project archive, and check the build on web, mobile, and desktop.

9 min read

Development Practice

View all 22 guides

DevOps, CI/CD, testing, estimation, and delivery patterns.

Development Practice

In-House DevOps vs DevOps-as-a-Service: A Cost and Capability Comparison

Should you hire a DevOps engineer or work with a DevOps-as-a-Service partner? A practical comparison of cost, coverage, risk, and how AI-augmented delivery changes the economics.

12 min read
Development Practice

Penetration Test or Production Readiness Review: Which Do You Need?

A penetration test attacks a running system; a production readiness review checks the code. When you need each, which to do first, and why order matters.

12 min read
Development Practice

Production Readiness Checklist for AI-Built Apps: OWASP ASVS and Cyber Essentials Plus

A production readiness checklist for AI-built apps, mapped to OWASP ASVS 5.0 and Cyber Essentials Plus, including what Cyber Essentials Plus does not cover.

15 min read
Development Practice

From Prototype to Production: What AI-Built Software Needs to Ship

What it takes to move a prototype built with Lovable, Bolt, Replit or Cursor into production: the usual gaps, and whether to stabilise, refactor or rebuild.

14 min read

Legacy Modernisation

View all 14 guides

Recognising hidden costs, choosing a modernisation strategy, and planning migration from legacy systems.

Legacy Modernisation

.NET MAUI vs React Native: Choosing a Xamarin Migration Target

An honest comparison of .NET MAUI and React Native for teams leaving Xamarin: support lifecycles, team cost, and when each one is the wrong answer.

16 min read
Legacy Modernisation

Xamarin to .NET MAUI Migration: A Practical Guide with AI-Assisted Code Translation

Step-by-step guide for migrating Xamarin.Forms applications to .NET MAUI. Custom Renderers to Handlers, DI migration, and where AI tooling helps most.

11 min read
Legacy Modernisation

Modernising Legacy .NET Applications with AI: The Enterprise Playbook (UK, 2026)

A structured approach to modernising legacy .NET Framework applications using AI-assisted development. Four pillars, real migration patterns, and practical guidance for enterprise teams.

22 min read
Legacy Modernisation

Modernising SQL Server Stored Procedures with AI: From T-SQL to a Tested C# Service Layer

How to modernise SQL Server stored procedures with AI: classify a large T-SQL estate, move business rules into tested C#, and prove behaviour parity.

14 min read

Legal and Contracts

View all 17 guides

Software development contracts, IP licensing, liability, and the legal terms that shape bespoke build engagements.

Legal and Contracts

Answering a Security Questionnaire When AI Built Your Product

How to answer secure development questions in a security questionnaire when AI tools wrote much of your code, with example answers and evidence to attach.

13 min read
Legal and Contracts

Who Is Accountable When AI Writes the Code?

When AI writes your software, the AI vendor is not accountable for it. How accountability splits between vendors, suppliers and you, and what to agree.

13 min read
Legal and Contracts

The Practical Guide to Software Development Contracts (UK)

What every client should know before signing a bespoke software development contract. Ten areas explained in plain English: capped investment, IP licensing, liability caps, acceptance testing, exit rights, support, data migration, AI clauses, duty of care, and protecting your investment.

20 min read
Legal and Contracts

Is REA Legal? AI Reverse Engineering, SaaS, and UK Law Explained

Is REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) legal? What UK copyright, contract, and computer misuse law allow when AI agents decompile and recreate software, including SaaS reverse engineering, licensed products, and systems you own.

13 min read

Teams and Support

View all 10 guides

Choosing partners, managing handovers, and outsourcing application support.

Teams and Support

Managed Support vs Hiring a Developer or DevOps Engineer

Should you hire a developer or DevOps engineer to run your software, or use a managed support partner? A UK comparison of cost, cover, breadth and risk.

13 min read
Teams and Support

Choosing a Software Development Partner in the Age of AI

How to evaluate software development agencies when AI-augmented delivery is the new baseline. Eight criteria that matter, how to assess AI maturity, and red flags to watch for.

12 min read
Teams and Support

How to Change Application Support Supplier Without Losing What They Know

A step-by-step guide to moving live application support from one supplier to another: exit planning, knowledge capture, stabilisation, and a clean takeover.

15 min read
Teams and Support

Keeping Supported Software Secure: Advanced Security and AI Threat Intelligence

How managed support keeps software secure: GitHub Advanced Security, Detectify attack surface monitoring, AI code analysis, and threat intelligence, with reviewed remediation.

14 min read

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