What working with me produces
Four samples of the documents behind the work: a first-100-days estate report, a specification with acceptance criteria, a change control note and a proposal outline. All on fictional businesses; all printable.
Fictional businesses and figures · illustrative only
Sample · First 100 days · Fictional business
Technology estate and delivery position
1. Summary
- Three businesses still run three order systems, two finance processes and one shared warehouse. Nobody can currently answer “what did we sell yesterday, across the group” without a spreadsheet.
- The website agency is capable but unmanaged: work is committed by email, estimates are accepted without challenge, and there are no acceptance criteria in any live ticket.
- The single biggest risk is the unsupported eCommerce platform, which has a fixed end-of-support date and takes card payments.
2. What’s there
| System | Used for | Owner | Condition |
|---|---|---|---|
| eCommerce platform (older release) | Online trade orders | Nobody named | Red Out of support; card payments |
| Order system × 3 | Orders by business | Each site manager | Amber Works; not joined up |
| Accounts package × 2 | Finance | Group finance | Amber Re-keyed monthly |
| Warehouse system | Stock and picking | Operations lead | Green Sound; good data |
| Project tool | Agency work | Marketing | Amber Bought, barely used |
3. Delivery position
Eleven pieces of website work are in flight. Four have an agreed cost; none has written acceptance criteria. Spend to date is ahead of what the board was told, because two change requests were approved by email and never added to the budget.
4. Suppliers
One website agency on a rolling monthly retainer with 30 days’ notice, one hosting company, one freelance developer who is the only person who understands the order system integration. That last one is a single point of failure.
5. Risks, in order
- Unsupported platform taking card payments: prompt security and payment-compliance review needed, alongside the outage risk.
- One person holding the integration knowledge.
- Board reporting built by hand from three systems, so it’s late and hard to trust.
- Agency work committed without cost or criteria.
6. The next 90 days
| Weeks | What happens | What’s true at the end |
|---|---|---|
| 1–4 | Freeze new agency work; write acceptance criteria for the eleven live items; document the integration. | Every live item has an owner, a cost and a test. |
| 5–8 | Platform assessment and options paper; one daily group sales figure out of the systems, not a spreadsheet. | A board decision on the platform, with costs. |
| 9–13 | Start the platform work; hand the weekly delivery view to the internal owner. | A named internal owner running it without me. |
7. Owner
The operations lead is the named internal owner, with an hour a week of handover from week 5.
Sample · Specification extract · Fictional business
Click and collect
The requirement
Customers can choose to collect their order from the shop instead of having it delivered, at no charge, and are told when it’s ready.
Rules
- Collection is offered only when every item in the basket is in stock at the shop.
- Orders placed before 2pm on a weekday are ready the same day; otherwise the next working day.
- Orders are held for 7 days, then the customer is contacted.
Acceptance criteria
- Given a basket where every item is in stock at the shop, when the customer reaches checkout, then “Collect from the shop (free)” is offered alongside delivery.
- Given a basket with one item out of stock at the shop, when the customer reaches checkout, then collection is not offered and the reason is shown in one line.
- Given a collection order placed at 1.59pm on a Tuesday, then the confirmation says “ready today”; at 2.01pm it says “ready tomorrow”.
- Given staff mark an order “ready”, then the customer receives an email within 5 minutes with the shop’s address and opening hours.
- Given an order uncollected after 7 days, then it appears on the staff “to contact” list.
Out of scope
Collection time slots; collection from anywhere other than the shop; part-collection of an order.
The same request, before and after
Before
“Add click and collect to the site.”
Estimated defensively, argued about at testing, and changed twice after launch.
After
The requirement, three rules, five acceptance criteria and what’s out of scope, as above.
Estimated accurately, tested against the list, and signed off when all five pass.
Sample · Change control note · Fictional project
Change CN-07: add trade pricing to click and collect
- The change
- Trade account customers see their trade prices on click and collect orders, not retail prices.
- Why
- Two trade customers asked for it; they currently phone orders through instead.
- Effect on cost
- +2 days’ development and 0.5 days’ testing, at the agreed day rate. Fictional figure: +£1,625.
- Effect on timing
- Launch moves from week 9 to week 10, unless the product image work (CN-05) is deferred to phase two, in which case launch stays in week 9.
- Dependencies
- Trade price data must be exported from the order system in the agreed format by week 7.
- Acceptance criteria
- Given a logged-in trade customer, when they choose click and collect, then every line and the total show trade prices, and the order record shows “trade”.
- Options
- A: approve, launch week 10. B: approve and defer CN-05, launch week 9. C: defer to phase two.
- Decision
- Option ______ · Approved by ____________ · Date ________
Sample · Proposal outline · Structure only
Proposal: [project name]
1. What you’ve asked for, in my words
A short restatement of the problem and the result you want, so we can confirm we mean the same thing before anything is priced.
2. Scope
In: each deliverable, one line each. Out: the things people usually assume are included, named so they can’t become a surprise.
3. Milestones
| Milestone | Deliverable | How we’ll know it’s done | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [deliverable] | [acceptance criteria, written before work starts] | [fixed fee] |
| 2 | [deliverable] | [acceptance criteria] | [fixed fee] |
| 3 | [deliverable] | [acceptance criteria] | [fixed fee] |
4. Assumptions and dependencies
Everything the price relies on, stated plainly, with who is responsible for each.
5. Changes
Any change gets a one-page note with its effect on cost and timing before you decide. Nothing changes by email.
6. Ownership
The proposal records which bespoke deliverables transfer to you, when that transfer happens and what is handed over. Third-party software, hosted services and any pre-existing materials are listed with their licence or access terms.
7. Terms
[Payment terms] · [Notice] · [Support after handover]
8. What happens next
A date to confirm scope, then work starts on the first milestone.
The documents are the method
Everything on this site about acceptance criteria, change control and visibility comes down to documents like these. It’s easier to show them than to describe them.
Your own version
Want one of these for your project? A scoping brief produces a specification like the one above: a fixed price from £750, or from £1,500 for portals and systems. The 100-day estate report is the first output of a fractional or private-equity engagement.