How we work
A conversation, a plan, then the software. Built and supported by the same people.
Most software projects go wrong in the gap between the promise and the delivery. We close it by planning properly before we commit to anything, delivering working software early, and staying to run it.
The four stages
Every engagement follows the same shape, whatever we are building. Short on ceremony, long on the things that decide whether a system succeeds.
- 01
A conversation
30–45 minutes, no charge
You talk to the person who would lead the work, not a salesperson. Bring the problem as you experience it: the spreadsheet everyone relies on, the re-keying, the report nobody trusts, the system the last supplier left behind.
We ask questions, and we give you a straight opinion: whether bespoke software is the right answer, roughly what it would involve, and what we would want to understand before putting a plan behind it. If a packaged product would serve you better, we say so.
- What you get
- A straight opinion
- An outline of what it would involve
- No obligation
- 02
Planning
Two to four weeks, fixed fee
Planning usually starts on site, with the people who do the work rather than only the people who manage it. We map how orders, stock, jobs or customers actually move through the business today, where the friction is, and which existing systems the new one must talk to.
From that we agree what the first release needs to do, outline the architecture and the integrations, look at the data that will need to move, and set out the team, the approach and the timeline. You get it all in writing, with a proposal for the build. The output is yours whether or not you go ahead with us.
- What you get
- A written scope and approach
- A proposal you can take to the board
- A plan with real dates
- 03
Build
Typically two to six months to a first release
We deliver in short increments, with working software on a test environment from the first weeks, so you steer from what you can see and use rather than from a status report. The same senior engineers stay on the project throughout.
Every increment goes through automated tests, code review and a staging environment before it reaches you. Data migration is rehearsed, not improvised. Go-live is planned with your team, with training and a period of close support afterwards.
- What you get
- Regular working releases
- A named lead you can phone
- The code and the IP
- 04
Support
Ongoing, monthly
Once the system is live we host it in your cloud account, monitor it, keep it patched and backed up, and answer when something needs attention, with agreed response times for anything urgent.
Support is also where the next improvements come from. A monthly review looks at what the business needs next, and most of our clients have been adding to their systems for years.
- What you get
- First- to third-line support
- Security and platform upgrades
- A partner for the next thing
What every client gets
Not a menu. These are the terms we work on, whoever you are and whatever we are building.
- 01
A named lead you can phone
One senior person who knows your project end to end and is writing the code, not relaying to someone who is.
- 02
Working software early
Releases you can use well before the end, reviewed with you at each stage, so you steer from what you see rather than from a status report.
- 03
Your code, your IP, your cloud account
Everything is assigned to you and lives in accounts you own. You can take it elsewhere at any point with all of it.
- 04
Written recommendations, with reasons
Where there is a choice, cloud, technology, buy versus build, you get it in writing with the trade-offs.
- 05
No surprises on scope or cost
If the work looks like it will run beyond the plan, you hear it from us first, with the options, before it happens.
- 06
UK GDPR as standard
A data processing agreement, data kept in UK or EU regions unless you ask otherwise, and audit trails built into what we deliver.
How we engineer
The practices behind every system we deliver. The same ones we run our own business on, and most of them are the reason a system is still working, and still changeable, ten years on.
- 01
Infrastructure as code
Every environment is described in code — CloudFormation on AWS, the equivalent on Azure — and built from nothing by a pipeline. It runs in your cloud account, and it can be rebuilt, audited and moved without a page of manual steps.
- 02
Pipelines, not people, deploy
Every branch builds automatically, so a broken change is caught before anyone reviews it. Only the release branch deploys, with immutable versions, so what is running is always known and can be rolled back.
- 03
Three environments
Development, a test environment you use before anything goes live, and live. Nothing reaches your users that you have not seen working.
- 04
Credentials in a vault, not a spreadsheet
Passwords, keys and certificates live in a self-hosted vault. Access follows project membership: joining a project opens its credentials, leaving it closes them, and nobody emails a password.
- 05
Security by default
Single sign-on where your business has it, least-privilege access, secrets kept out of code, audit trails built into what we deliver, and dependencies kept current as part of support rather than as an afterthought.
- 06
Backups you can restore
Automated backups with agreed retention, kept in the UK or EU, and restores that are actually tested. A backup that has never been restored is a hope, not a plan.
- 07
Reviewed, tested, documented
Code is reviewed before it is merged, covered by automated tests where they earn their keep, and documented well enough that a new developer — ours or yours — could start from the repository.
- 08
Boring technology, chosen on purpose
Mainly .NET and TypeScript, Angular or React on the web, cross-platform mobile, SQL Server, MySQL or PostgreSQL for data, AWS or Azure to run it. Mature, well supported, and easy for another team to pick up.
How we charge
There is no price list, because we have never met two businesses with the same problem. What we can tell you is how the money works.
-
Planning is a fixed fee
A short, fixed-price planning phase with a defined output. You know the cost before it starts and you own what it produces.
-
Build is priced from the plan
Either time and materials, invoiced monthly against the hours actually worked on your project, or a fixed price paid against milestones when the scope is firm enough to deserve one. The proposal says which and why.
-
Support is a monthly fee
Hosting, monitoring, patching and an agreed amount of change each month, reviewed together. Larger pieces of work are planned and quoted separately.
-
You see the time
Every hour is recorded against your project and reported to you. If work is heading beyond the plan you hear it from us first, with the options, before it costs you anything.
Working with you, day to day
- 01
One backlog, visible to you
The work is planned in a shared backlog you can see at any time: what is being built now, what is next, and what has been parked and why.
- 02
A regular call, and demos
A short weekly call with your lead, and a demonstration of working software at the end of each increment on a test environment you can log into.
- 03
On site when it matters
Planning starts in your building. During the build we come to you for the moments that need it: workshops, go-live, training.
- 04
Your people, involved
The people who will use the system see it early and often. Software that the warehouse team helped shape is software the warehouse team will use.
Three ways to work with us
- 01
Build it for you
For you if You have a problem and no software team of your own.
Planning, then iterative delivery to a first release, then we host and support it. The default, and most of our work.
- 02
Work alongside your team
For you if You have IT or developers and need senior capacity or a specialism.
We join your backlog and your meetings for as long as it is useful, and hand over cleanly.
- 03
Take over and run
For you if Someone else built it and the relationship has ended.
We take on the codebase, stabilise and document it, modernise what needs it, and keep new work shipping.
Before the first call
Questions we are usually asked
What happens after I get in touch?
Someone senior replies within a working day, usually with a few questions. We then arrange a call — half an hour is normally enough for a first conversation. If bespoke software looks like the right answer, we propose a short planning phase; if it doesn’t, we say so.
How do you price a project?
We don’t put a number on work we don’t yet understand. Every project starts with a conversation and a planning phase, and the proposal that follows sets out the scope, the team and the cost for that specific piece of work. There are no published rates and no estimates from a form.
Who owns the software?
You do. The code, the intellectual property and the cloud accounts it runs in are yours. You are never locked in, and we would rather keep a client because the work is good than because leaving is hard.
How long does a project take?
Planning typically takes two to four weeks. A first release of a business system is usually a matter of months, with working software available to you well before the end. The planning phase gives you real dates for your project rather than a generic answer.
Can you take over a system someone else built?
Yes, and we do it regularly. We take on the codebase, stabilise it, document it, bring the technology up to date, and get new work shipping again without a pause in service. Rebel Internet is a worked example.
Do you work alongside in-house IT teams?
Often. Some clients have an IT function that runs the infrastructure and needs a software partner; others have developers and need senior capacity or a specialism. We fit around what you have.
What technology do you use?
Mainly .NET and TypeScript on AWS or Azure, Angular and React on the web, cross-platform mobile, and SQL Server, MySQL or PostgreSQL for data. We choose per project and explain why, and we avoid anything exotic that your next supplier could not pick up.
Where are you based?
We are a UK company and work with UK businesses. Most work is done remotely with regular visits; the planning phase usually involves time on site, because seeing how the work happens is the point.
Start a conversation
Tell us what isn’t working. We will reply within a working day, and the first conversation costs nothing.
Thank you. We will be in touch within one working day.
If it is urgent, email hello@garman-technology.co.uk.