Build, buy, or leave it
The useful answer includes the option to not build. A vendor proposal is read against your environment, not against its own demo.
Consulting
A point of view, before anyone builds.
This is the practice for a decision that will be expensive to reverse. Alpha Fox writes the recommendation: the sequence, the tradeoffs, and the options that are not worth pursuing.
Architecture that has to last
Whether the proposed shape holds past the first release, and which parts are carrying risk they do not look like they are carrying.
Delivery that has stalled
Where the work is actually stuck, and which change would move it. The diagnosis is specific to your team and system.
What you leave with
A recommendation you can act on, the reasoning behind it, and a sequence for what happens next. Building it is a separate decision.
How a consulting engagement moves
The result is a written point of view. It is not a prototype, and it is not a staffed build.
- Read the situation
The systems, the constraint, and the decision actually in front of you. Not a generic maturity score.
- Test the options
Build, buy, change what you have, or stop. Each option is checked against what would have to be true for it to work here.
- Write the recommendation
Sequence, tradeoffs, and what Alpha Fox would not do. The document is the deliverable.
- Walk it through
With the people who have to live with the choice, until the recommendation can be used without us in the room.