04 — Full-stack
CoderConda develops web applications across every layer, from the interface to operations, and the level that counts as “done” is in the quote before the start; two to twelve weeks per project. A feature is rarely broken, just done at a lower level.
The technical review takes fifteen minutes and costs nothing.
Level · Evidence5 levels
“It runs on my machine.”A program version that builds.
01The codereached
02The addressopen
The usual job ends here.
03The loadopen
04Operationsopen
05The handoveropen
02 — The five levels
01 — The code
“It runs on my machine.”
The first level is the cheapest, and it is the one nobody should lean on. A program version that builds says only this: the idea works technically. It says nothing about whether your people can use it, and nothing about your data.
Every project reaches this level. It is not a result.
02 — The address
“It runs at your place.”
Now somebody in your company can log in and use the feature. This is where most projects are invoiced, which is exactly why the expensive questions start afterward. Everything beyond it costs somebody time later, and no proposal says so.
From here on, every further level costs a decision.
03 — The load
“It runs on your data.”
A test fixture is tidy. Your records are not: duplicate entries, empty fields, characters somebody pasted in years ago. The third level is one run against what you actually hold. It finds in an afternoon what otherwise surfaces in month three.
This level moves no deadline. It moves when you find out.
04 — Operations
“It still runs in four weeks.”
A certificate expires, an interface changes its format, a disk fills up. At this level there is a log that somebody reads and an alert that arrives before a customer calls. That is the difference between an outage and an appointment.
Without this level, your customer tells you about your fault.
05 — The handover
“It runs without me.”
Accounts in your hands, a document a developer who has never seen the code can follow, and a meeting where they ask their questions. This level is why I do not sell dependency. Anyone who cannot leave without something stopping has handed over nothing.
A handover nobody rehearsed is a claim.
Level 1 of 5
Level · Evidence5 levels
“It runs on my machine.”A program version that builds.
The codereached
The addressopen
The usual job ends here.
The loadopen
Operationsopen
The handoveropen
03 — The right level
After five levels the obvious move is to order the fifth every time. That is expensive and usually wrong. What counts is not the height but that the level is named beforehand. An unnamed level gets negotiated later, and later it is negotiated by whoever is more tired.
Three projects, three levels
A prototype that answers one question.
01
02
03
04
05
02The address
It gets thrown away afterward. A handover would be money spent on something nobody takes over.
A feature in daily operations.
01
02
03
04
05
04Operations
It runs every day and nobody extends it. The log weighs more than the document.
An application your team takes over.
01
02
03
04
05
05The handover
Here the documentation is the deliverable, not an extra on the final day.
The level belongs in the proposal, not in the argument afterward.
04 — The evidence
Snipeflip is a trading platform that processes its operations on lean infrastructure. The figure beside it is here not because it is large but because it is a consequence: interface, data model and operations were decided together instead of negotiated one after another.
Spoken in English · subtitles in English
SnipeflipTrading platform
Levels evidenced
Level · Evidence5 levels
“It runs on my machine.”A program version that builds.
01The codereached
02The addressreached
The usual job ends here.
03The loadreached
04Operationsreached
05The handoveropen
This case does not evidence the fifth level, and I do not claim it here.
05 — What is fixed
Two projects are rarely the same size. I name the amount in writing after the first call, before anything is built. Everything else is fixed: how the scope comes about, when the price starts to hold, who owns the code and what the first step costs.
Excerpt from a scope
Included
Not included
Acceptance at level 04 — Operations
ResponsibleDamjan Savić
An excerpt, not a proposal. Yours names your feature.
06 — The cut
Not every project is full-stack development, and an offer that accepts everything helps nobody. Three shapes are built under this name. Three others have a better home, and it is named beside them.
Right here
One bounded feature2–3 weeks
A process that runs by hand today becomes a form with a database behind it.
An integration of two systems3–6 weeks
Two programs holding the same data reconcile themselves instead of somebody retyping them.
An application taken over6–12 weeks
Somebody else’s code that has to keep running and keep growing. The effort sits in the legacy.
Better elsewhere
Roles, permissions and an area where your customers work for themselves.
A process meant to stay exactly as it is, only without your involvement.
A site that gets found and explains what you offer.
Your project fits none of the six rows.
Then the review exists for exactly that. Fifteen minutes are enough to say whether I am the right person. If I am not, I say so in the same call and name who is better placed.
07 — The objections
Four objections come up in every one of these conversations. Answering them here saves you the meeting in which you would have to raise them.
“We already have a developer.”
Concerns level 04Operations
Good. Then the question is not who builds but who owns operations. Most developers are booked to build, not for what comes afterward.
“What happens if you drop out?”
Concerns level 05The handover
A fair question, and it is the reason the fifth level exists. Accounts are yours, the code sits in your repository, and the handover is rehearsed rather than promised.
“Can you take over our code?”
Concerns level 01The code
More often than a rebuild, yes. Before any commitment comes a look inside: state, dependencies and operating model decide whether extending or rebuilding is the more honest route.
“Why do you not name a flat price?”
Concerns level 03The load
Because a flat price on an unknown scope has two outcomes: it is padded, or it gets renegotiated. After the review a fixed price stands in the proposal, and it holds.
A developer in house is an advantage, not an obstacle. The work left over is rarely the building: it is the fourth level, which nobody budgeted time for. Whoever sets up a log has to read it, and whoever sends an alert has to be reachable when it arrives. In cases like these I often take on that level alone, with a written boundary naming which systems are covered. Your developer keeps building, and the phone rings at my end.
The honest part of the answer is that a person can drop out and so can a company. The difference is not size but what exists the day after. With me that is three things: the accounts are in your name, not mine. The code sits in your repository from day one. And there is a document a developer who has never seen the project can read without asking, because you and I walked through it together once. A handover nobody rehearsed is a claim.
A takeover always starts at the first level, even when the application has been in production for years: before I promise anything, it has to build on my machine. That sounds small and is the most common place a project gets stuck. After that I look at three things: how many dependencies are unmaintained, whether there is a repeatable path onto the server, and what happens when an input is wrong. The recommendation comes out of those three answers, and sometimes it is to take over nothing.
The website service carries a price on the page because it is one scope: the same steps, the same deadline, every time. This offer is not a scope but a way of building, and it runs from a feature in two weeks to an application taken over across months. A single figure over that would either be high enough to punish the small case or low enough to be renegotiated in month three. What I fix instead: the price of the first step, which is nothing, and the moment from which the price holds.
08 — Appointment
Pick a time that suits you straight from the calendar. I go through with you where your company stands and what is worth doing. No obligation and no sales pressure.
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