Scope, cycles and workstreams

Every Builder engagement runs on an agreed scope. This page is what that sentence means in practice.

The commitment, verbatim

Every Builder engagement runs on an agreed scope. At the start of each cycle we plan what's being built and in what order - you always know what you're getting. Larger initiatives span multiple cycles; smaller ones ship within one. You're buying focused senior delivery against a plan we set together, not a fixed feature count.

That wording is deliberate on both halves. You get a written plan, so the month is never a black box. You do not get a contractual feature count, because a promised count only survives contact with reality by cutting quality somewhere you cannot see.

What a workstream is

A workstream is one coherent thread of work with an outcome you would recognise: "self-serve signup", "the Android app reaches feature parity", "cut the p95 latency on the search path". It is not a ticket, and it is not a quarter-long theme. Most workstreams span more than one cycle.

The tier decides how many run at once. Core is one at a time by design, because one thing finished beats three things half done. Plus runs several. Max runs the roadmap.

The cycle

1. Plan. At the start of the cycle we agree what is in flight and in what order. This is a short written list, not a Gantt chart.
2. Deliver. Work ships continuously rather than landing in one drop at the end. Everything goes through the normal review path described in What ships, and the gates it passes.
3. Review. At the close we look at what shipped, what slipped and why, and that feeds the next plan.

Planning cadence per tier is on the Planning and cadence page.

When priorities move mid-cycle

They will, and that is fine. The rule is that the plan is re-agreed rather than quietly extended: something new comes in, something else moves out or slips, and both of us can see the trade. What does not happen is silent scope growth where the list keeps getting longer and the delivery date keeps not moving.

The mechanics of that conversation are on Scope changes.

What sits outside the retainer

Work that is genuinely a different product, an urgent one-off audit, a migration, a training workshop, usually fits a productized service better than a retainer cycle. Running them as their own fixed-price piece keeps them from quietly absorbing a cycle's capacity. Advisor retainer clients get those services at half price; Builder clients get them quoted as normal, scheduled around the cycle.