A conversation, a written plan, then working software in stages.
Nothing is built on the strength of a first meeting. Each stage is scoped and priced in writing, ends with something your team can use, and can be the last one if you want it to be.
The shape of an engagement
The same shape whatever gets built. Choose a stage to see what you would be holding at the end of it.
Conversation
Before anything startsUnder a mutual NDA, signed first. You explain how the work moves through the business and where it leaks. On site where possible.
Plan
Within the first weekA written proposal for the first stage: what it contains, what it costs, what done means, and what you keep if you stop there.
Build
Weeks, in stagesOne engineer, full time on your build. Each stage ends with working software in your team's hands. The next stage is quoted when you want it.
Run
For as long as you run itSupport from the person who wrote it, by the hour and visible. Ongoing clients get an annual security audit on what Leapfrog built.
Where a first stage usually starts
Every build begins where the time or money is leaking. Pick the part of your business that hurts and see what a first stage tends to contain. Yours will differ, and that is what the conversation is for.
Usually built first
What it replaces
If you stopped after it
A first stage is a few weeks of work, priced in writing before it starts. Everything in it is registered to you from the first day.
Start a conversationYou brief the person who writes the code.
No account manager, no junior handed your project, no ticket queue between you and the code. One engineer, full time on your build, on site when it matters. That is the reason the dates in the plan hold.
Quoted in stages. By the hour after that.
Bespoke work carries bespoke pricing, which is different from vague pricing. Build work is priced stage by stage against a written scope. Everything after it runs on an hourly rate you control.
A fixed price, stage by stage
Each stage is scoped, priced and accepted before the next one is quoted. You never commit to months of work on the strength of a first conversation.
- Written scope and acceptance criteria, agreed before work starts.
- Payment on acceptance. A stage is paid for once it does what the scope said it would.
- Stop at any boundary and keep everything delivered so far.
By the hour, with the hours visible
Once the system is live, change is constant. You authorise the work, you see the hours, and you stop whenever you want.
- Changes and refinements as your workflow shifts, which it will once people are using it.
- Training for new staff, and dealing with your other suppliers so your team does not have to.
- Advice on whether to buy or build, before the money is spent.
Third-party running costs, such as licensing, hosting and the domain, are set up on your own accounts and billed to you directly at cost. No margin is taken on them.
The meter, drawn
Every project carries a budget reading against the hours in the proposal you accepted. Amber at 80%, red at 100%, on Leapfrog's dashboard every morning and in your portal whenever you look. Drive it.
Green. Logged hours are inside the proposal you accepted. Nothing to discuss.
The ceiling is the accepted proposal, frozen when it was sent. It moves only when you accept a variation.
When something breaks
All software has defects eventually, and anyone who says otherwise is selling. What matters is the hour after one shows up. You reach the person who wrote the code, and the issue is handled according to how much damage it is doing.
The next step is a conversation, not a commitment.
Describe the workflow that hurts. You get a read on what a first stage would contain, what it would cost and where the stop points sit, in writing, before anything starts.