Development Practice
DevOps, CI/CD, testing, estimation, and delivery patterns.
Good software is not just about writing code. These guides cover the practices that separate prototypes from production systems: DevOps maturity, delivery pipelines, service standards, and the discipline needed to ship AI-built software that actually works at scale.
Whether you are assessing your DevOps capability, deciding between in-house and outsourced operations, or applying GDS service standards in the private sector, each guide is grounded in what we see working across real delivery teams.
Data Classification: How to Implement It Technically
Most data classification schemes live in a spreadsheet nobody reads. This guide shows how to implement classification in code and infrastructure so it is machine-readable, drives real controls, and cannot drift out of date.
Data Protection by Design: The Standard Features Every Compliant System Needs
Data protection by design is an engineering discipline, not a policy document. This guide sets out the standard software features every GDPR-compliant system needs, and how to build them in from the first line of code.
Data Subject Rights, Retention and Erasure: The Engineering
Subject access, portability, and the right to erasure are software features with statutory deadlines, not favours. This guide covers how to build them, including retention engines, crypto-shredding, and erasure that keeps the audit trail.
How Adaptive Learning Platforms Actually Work
Genuine adaptive learning is an architecture, not a feature: the item bank, learner model, sequencing engine, and feedback loop every real platform needs.
Structuring a Learning Content Library for Adaptivity and AI
The content work comes first: how to audit, structure, tag, and migrate a learning content estate into an item bank ready for adaptivity and AI.
Handling Bacs Reports Properly: ARUDD, ADDACS, and AWACS
What ARUDD, ADDACS, and AWACS reports tell you, the reason codes that matter, and the correct automated system response to each. A technical guide for billing systems.
Disruption Communications for Ferry Operators
How ferry operators should handle weather cancellations: real-time sailing status, proactive notifications, and self-service rebooking that reduce contact-centre load and protect trust.
Reservation and Release in Checkout Flows: How Booking Systems Should Hold Places
How a booking system should hold a place while a customer pays, and release it if they do not. Time-boxed reservations, expiry, and release patterns explained.
High-Demand Bookings Without Overselling: Designing for Contention
How booking systems survive on-sale spikes and last-place races without overselling. Atomic capacity checks, serialisation, idempotency, and waitlist overflow explained.
How Booking Waitlists Should Work: Queues, Positions, and Promotion Design
What a well-designed booking waitlist looks like: atomic joins, honest queue positions, bounded sizes, and the three promotion models compared.
How Membership Freezes Should Work: Billing, Fees, and Status Done Properly
What a well-designed membership freeze looks like: date-bounded records, freeze fees that replace recurring charges, previews before committing, and derived status.
AI-Augmented QA: How Quality Assurance Keeps Pace With AI Development
A practical guide to AI-augmented QA: test case generation, automation, AI bug reports, release risk analysis, and pipeline acceptance checks, plus where human judgement still leads.
Claude Code for .NET Developers: A Practical Getting Started Guide
Getting started with Claude Code for C# and .NET. Installation, IDE integration, pre-approved command setup, cloud agents, and practical .NET workflows.
Configuring Claude Code for .NET: Settings, Hooks, MCP, and Cloud Agents
Claude Code configuration reference for .NET teams. Pre-approved command catalogue, hooks, MCP servers, skills, subagents, and cloud environments.
The GDS Service Standard for Private-Sector Delivery Teams
A practical guide to what the UK Government's GDS Service Standard offers private-sector delivery teams, which practices transfer directly, which need adapting, and which are genuinely public-sector specific.
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.
DevOps Maturity: Where Does Your Team Stand and What Should You Fix First?
A practical DevOps maturity model with AI-augmented practices at each level. Self-assessment questions, DORA metrics, and a prioritised improvement path.
From Prototype to Production: What AI-Built Software Needs to Ship
AI tools make prototyping nearly free. The gap between a working demo and production-grade software is where most projects stall. A practical guide to bridging it.
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AI and Code
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API and Integration
REST, GraphQL, gRPC, Azure API Management, and integration patterns.
Build, Buy, or Replace
Decision frameworks for build vs buy, SaaS replacement, and migration planning.
Legacy Modernisation
Recognising hidden costs, choosing a modernisation strategy, and planning migration from legacy systems.
Legal and Contracts
Software development contracts, IP licensing, liability, and the legal terms that shape bespoke build engagements.
Teams and Support
Choosing partners, managing handovers, and outsourcing application support.
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