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RESOURCES / GUIDES AND TOOLS

Better questionsbefore the build.

Guides, checklists and tools for UK businesses choosing, briefing and working with a software development partner: how to write a brief, questions to ask, budget planning and the latest insights.

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01 / Guides

Short guides forpeople buying software.

Choosing and working with a software partner is easier when you know what to ask. These guides, checklists and tools are written for UK business owners, product leads and IT managers who need to make good decisions about software without becoming engineers.

How to write a software brief

The one-page brief that gets you an accurate quote: the problem, the users, the must-haves, the constraints and what success looks like.

  1. Start with the business problem, not the feature list
  2. Name the users and what each needs to do
  3. List the systems it must connect to
  4. State the constraints: budget range, deadline, compliance
  5. Define the evidence that the project worked

Questions to ask before hiring a developer or agency

Twelve questions that separate a partner from a supplier, from ownership of the code to what happens when scope changes.

  1. Who owns the code, accounts and infrastructure?
  2. Can we see working software from a comparable project?
  3. How are changes to scope priced?
  4. Who is on the team, and what is the working-hours overlap?
  5. How do you handle UK GDPR and where is data hosted?
  6. What does support look like after launch?

UK data protection checklist for software projects

The decisions to make before a build touches personal data: lawful basis, minimisation, hosting region, retention and the DPIA question.

  1. Identify every category of personal data the system will hold
  2. Decide the lawful basis and document it
  3. Choose the hosting region and confirm sub-processors
  4. Set retention and deletion rules per data type
  5. Decide whether a DPIA is needed and who owns it

Planning a software budget

What drives cost, how to phase a project so the first release earns its keep, and how to compare a quote with hiring in-house.

  1. Scope drives cost more than technology
  2. Phase the release around the riskiest assumption
  3. Budget for content, data migration and training
  4. Compare quotes against the fully loaded cost of hiring
  5. Use the cost calculator for an indicative range

02 / Tools

Tools you canuse today.

03 / Latest insights

Field notes forUK businesses.

All insights
01

Build UK Supplier Due Diligence Software: Mitigate Risk for Your SME

For UK businesses, managing supplier risk is paramount, yet many SMEs rely on manual, inconsistent checks. Discover how a purpose-built UK supplier due diligence software MVP can leverage official data sources like Companies House to streamline compliance and protect your operations from financial and reputational threats.

02

Optimise UK Cloud Spend: A FinOps Guide for VAT & Cost Control

For UK businesses navigating complex cloud infrastructures, optimising spend goes beyond technical tweaks. This guide provides a FinOps framework tailored to the unique financial and regulatory landscape of the UK, helping you manage VAT, control costs in pounds sterling, and ensure compliance.

03

Mastering LLM Data Residency in the UK: Compliance & Cloud Choices

For UK businesses leveraging LLMs, understanding data residency is critical for compliance and trust. This guide explores the complexities of UK GDPR, cloud regions, and model provider data processing, offering practical strategies to build secure, production-ready AI applications.

FAQ

About these resources.

Yes. The guides and tools on this page are free, with no sign-up required.

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