Bespoke software engineering

What it is

Software written for one organisation’s requirement, because no product on the market fits it closely enough to be worth the compromise.

This is the core of what the company does. It covers the application, the services behind it, the data model, the integrations it depends on, and the documentation needed to run it afterwards.

Typical requirements we are asked about

• A process currently held together by spreadsheets, email and manual re-keying
• An existing system that works but cannot be extended, or whose supplier is no longer available
• A product idea that needs to move from prototype to something that can be operated in production
• A requirement written into a tender that no off-the-shelf product satisfies

What Astri Devs delivers

• A written specification with acceptance criteria agreed before build starts
• Application and service code, with automated tests covering the behaviour that matters
• A data model designed for the questions the organisation actually needs to answer
• Deployment configuration and environment separation between development, staging and production
• Documentation written for the people who will operate the system, not only for developers

Typical outputs

• Working software deployed to an environment the buying organisation controls
• Source code and infrastructure configuration, owned by the buying organisation
• Architecture notes, runbooks and a handover session
• A defined support arrangement, where one is wanted

Engagement approach

Usually a fixed-scope project against a written specification, with change controlled in writing. Longer programmes are broken into phases that each deliver something usable rather than running to a single distant milestone.