software development process
Every Armdia Systems engagement runs through four phases. Discovery clarifies the problem. Design produces the blueprint. Build delivers working software in two week increments. Support keeps the software healthy after launch. Each phase has fixed deliverables and commercial boundaries.
Four phases, in order
Click any phase below to see the deliverables, the artefacts produced, the typical cost band and a sample artefact you can ask to see in full.
Phase 1 · Discovery
Discovery is paid because it is the work that makes everything else honest. We sit with the people who will use the system, read the source code if there is any, and walk every integration with the person responsible for it.
The deliverable is a document you could hand to a different agency and get a comparable quote back. The point is portability, not lock in.
Cost band
GBP 4,000 to GBP 12,000
Duration: Two to six weeks
Deliverables
Artefacts
What the client does each week
A representative engagement totals 36 hours of client time across twelve weeks. The first weeks are heavier because that is when the system is being defined. The later weeks are lighter because the work is being done.
Week 1
Discovery
6 hrs
Three interviews with operators, walkthrough of two existing systems and review of any existing documentation.
Week 2
Discovery
4 hrs
Read of the draft scope, written feedback and a workshop on the proposed acceptance criteria.
Week 3
Discovery
3 hrs
Sign off on the scope, fixed price quote and risk register. Build phase kick off scheduled.
Week 4
Design
4 hrs
Review of user flows and a walkthrough of the first prototype on a shared link.
Week 5
Design
2 hrs
Asynchronous review of the design system tokens with written comments returned within forty eight hours.
Week 6
Build
2 hrs
Sprint review of the first working feature deployed to a staging environment.
Week 7
Build
1 hr
Light touch week. Email check ins on a couple of integration questions.
Week 8
Build
3 hrs
Mid build review against the discovery acceptance criteria with the named decision maker on your side.
Week 9
Build
2 hrs
Sprint review and acceptance walk on the next set of features.
Week 10
Build
2 hrs
Final sprint review before pre launch testing begins.
Week 11
Launch and stabilise
4 hrs
User acceptance testing on the production candidate. We supply the test script.
Week 12
Launch and stabilise
3 hrs
Launch day and the handover session. Operations runbook walked end to end.
What slows projects down
None of these are about engineering capacity. We publish them because they are usually fixable in the first week of an engagement, before they cost weeks later.
Reason 1
A decision needed in days takes a fortnight because it has to wait for a meeting. The project does not get worse during that fortnight, but it does get slower and more expensive because the team is parked on something else.
How we mitigate
We name the decision maker in writing during discovery and ask for a single point of authority for the duration of the build phase. Where a committee is unavoidable, we agree the cadence of its meetings before the build phase starts.
Reason 2
When the documentation for an integration target disagrees with the implementation, the team has to write its own documentation by inspection. That work is real, it is necessary and it is rarely planned for.
How we mitigate
We add an explicit week to discovery to verify documentation against the running system for every integration. If a discrepancy is large enough to change the budget, we surface it in discovery rather than mid build.
Reason 3
A buyer realising mid build that the regulator wants a specific data residency, an audit trail or a Cyber Essentials posture loses weeks. The constraint is rarely new — it just was not visible to the team at the start.
How we mitigate
We require a written compliance brief at the start of discovery for any project that touches healthcare, finance, education or the public sector. The brief is a thirty minute conversation with the named compliance owner on your side.
Two to four weeks. From GBP 4,000 fixed price. Deliverables include a requirements document, technical architecture decision record, user journey map, risk register and a fixed price build recommendation. Discovery is a paid phase, not a free sales call.
Two to six weeks. Cost is included in the build quote or quoted separately where design runs as a standalone phase. Interface design, system architecture, data modelling and an interactive prototype are delivered for client review before build begins.
Duration depends on scope and typically runs six weeks to six months. Two week sprint cadence with a demonstration at the end of each sprint. Automated test suites run on every commit. Target test coverage is 80 percent on logic and complete coverage on payment and identity flows. Deployment pipelines ship to staging automatically.
Ongoing after launch. Monthly retainers from GBP 1,500 for Bronze through to bespoke Gold arrangements. Monitoring, patching, dependency updates, incident response with four hour notification on confirmed incidents and scoped feature work keep the product healthy.
Linear for tracking, Figma for design, GitHub for code and review, pull requests for every change, written architecture decision records and a weekly fifteen minute synchronous review call keep progress auditable and communication clear.
Clients need to provide a named decision maker, timely feedback on fortnightly demonstrations, domain knowledge, access to existing systems and time for acceptance review. Slow approvals are the single most common cause of preventable delay.
| Option | Best fit | Risk to check |
|---|---|---|
| Armdia Systems | Bespoke systems with clear ownership and United Kingdom first delivery. | Requires a proper discovery phase before fixed pricing. |
| Off the shelf SaaS | Standard workflows with little custom process risk. | Licence, integration and process mismatch costs can grow. |
| Freelance contractor | Small isolated tasks with limited governance needs. | Continuity, documentation and support coverage need scrutiny. |
Discovery is always fixed price. Build phases are quoted as fixed price after discovery defines scope, assumptions and acceptance criteria. Support runs on monthly retainers. We do not charge open ended day rates.
The client owns all bespoke code and project artefacts at handover. Pre existing libraries and open source dependencies remain under their original licences. The assignment clause is explicit in every contract.
Scope changes are documented as a variation with a separate cost, timeline and acceptance criteria. Nothing is added to a sprint without written agreement from both sides.
Slips are surfaced immediately with a written note on cause, impact and revised plan. We do not wait until the end of a sprint to communicate a risk. Prevention is preferred to apology.
We set up GitHub, Linear and deployment infrastructure. Clients need a browser, email and a video call application. No specialist tooling or licences are required from the client side.
Handover includes repository access, deployment documentation, architecture records, environment setup guides and a walkthrough session. A transition period allows questions before the engagement ends.