Copilots in the pipeline, agents in the workflow, and everything that ships still carries a named owner, a cost and a finish line the board can read.
Everyone tells firms to adopt AI. In software it arrives as copilots in the pipeline and agents in the workflow, and it fails where delivery is ungoverned. Most firms of 50-200 buy and configure far more than they build; the decisions still need an owner.
Under the framework, a named senior owns those answers: what to configure, what to buy, when a build is justified, and how AI joins the pipeline without loosening it. One of ten domains. One named leader.
Owned through the seat, or entered through one workflow.Fractional Head of IT from £4,750 a month. A first production workflow from £7,500, fixed.
Build-or-buy decisions and delivery, governed. Automation shipped.
That is the one-line promise on the framework map. In practice, owning this domain means:
Build-or-buy, decided before the money moves. Configure what you already pay for first. Buy where the market has solved the problem. Build only when the workflow is genuinely yours.
A delivery map with named owners. Every build, integration and configuration in flight: who owns it, what it costs, and when it is done.
Suppliers held to one standard. Source control, environments, releases and access, written down, whether the code is built in-house or bought in. When the contract ends, the code and the keys stay with you.
Shadow delivery brought onto the map. The spreadsheets, scripts and micro-apps that quietly run the business get an owner, a replacement or a retirement date.
Automation shipped, with a measure. A workflow goes into production with an owner and a number that says what it saves. Live production agents run in our own practice, so the standard is one we hold ourselves to.
In the framework
One of ten domains
Software development sits alongside Cost, Cyber security, Compliance, Infrastructure, Operations, Vendor management, AI, Data and Analytics on the framework map.
It leans hardest on three neighbours: AI for the agents and automation that ship, Operations for what happens after release, and Vendor management for who builds and who answers for it.
This page describes a dimension of the framework. It carries no price of its own. The two routes in are below.
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AI in software development
What we assess, govern and put live
The lens
Copilots in the pipeline, agents in the workflow, delivery still governed
That is this domain's line on the framework map. Making software delivery AI-ready is specific work:
Assess where AI already writes code. Coding copilots are usually in the pipeline before anyone has approved them. We find them, count the seats, and put the spend on the delivery map.
Govern AI-assisted code with a written standard. What the copilot may see, how its output is reviewed before it ships, and who owns the result. The acceptance bar stays the same whether the code came from a developer, a supplier or a copilot.
Hold suppliers to the same rule. Your suppliers use AI too. The standard covers their delivery: provenance, licensing and review, written into the contract.
Put agents live as production software. An agent in a workflow gets an owner, access it can justify, a change record and a number that says what it saves. The first one ships as a fixed piece of work from £7,500.
Why it holds
AI fails where delivery is ungoverned
Everyone tells firms to adopt AI. Nobody owns making the firm ready for it. A copilot on an ungoverned pipeline ships unreviewed code faster. An agent on an unmapped workflow automates a process nobody owns.
Governance is what turns pilots into production. The agent answering our own phone line is ours, held to the standard described here.
The AI domain covers strategy, governance and pilots across the whole estate.
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How it is bought
The seat, or one fixed workflow
Route one · The seatALL TEN DOMAINS
Owned through the fractional Head of IT
Walk into every board meeting with the answers.
The seat governs software delivery alongside the other nine domains: the build-or-buy position, the supplier's delivery, the automation pipeline, and the paper the board reads. One or two days a week, in the room.
A Teams bot, a voice front door, or an automation with a clear owner and a clear finish line. We build it, put it into production, and measure what it saves. A contained first step into the domain.
Any single domain can be owned on its own, priced in conversation.
Software development included. Start the conversation and say which dimension hurts.
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How it runs
Diagnose. Deliver. Decide.
01
Diagnose
First we listen. We sit with whoever owns delivery today: the supplier, the internal developer, the person whose spreadsheet quietly runs the business.
02
Deliver
Visible progress in weeks, with a board-readable outcome. Often the delivery map, the build-or-buy position, and the first workflow shipped.
03
Decide
It's your call. Keep the seat filled at one or two days a week, or keep the gains and run it yourselves. Either way the place is stronger.
The rhythm
First we listen. Then visible progress, scoped at diagnose. Then it's your call.
The same rhythm as how we work across the practice, applied to one domain.
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FAQs
The questions firms actually ask
Questions
What is software delivery governance?
The decisions and controls around the software a firm builds, buys and configures: who owns each piece of delivery, what it costs, when it ships, and what happens to it in production. It is one of the ten domains of The Technology Framework.
We have no developers. Does this apply to us?
Yes. Most firms of 50-200 buy and configure far more than they build. The build-or-buy decision, the supplier's delivery and the automation that follows still need a named owner on your side of the table.
Do you write code?
Where it earns its keep. A first workflow ships as a fixed piece of work, the production IT agent, from £7,500. Larger builds are governed: we set the standard and hold the delivery to it, without selling you a development team. Live production agents run in our own practice, so the standard is one we meet ourselves.
Can our developers use AI coding tools?
With a standard in place, yes. We set out what the copilot may see, how its output is reviewed before it ships, and who owns the code it helps write. A governed yes beats a quiet ban that everyone works around.
Who owns delivery when a supplier builds it?
You do, through the seat. Deliverables are named in the contract, acceptance is written down, and source code, environments and access stay under your control when the engagement ends.
Is this a separate project or part of the seat?
The seat covers all ten domains, software development included. The domain can also be owned on its own, priced in conversation, or entered through one fixed automation.
What happens to the spreadsheets nobody owns?
They go on the delivery map. Each one gets a named owner, a replacement or a retirement date. Unowned scripts are where audits stall and key-person risk hides.
Software development is one dimension of ten.The framework map shows where it sits. The neighbouring domains show what it touches.
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Start the conversation
Bring the thing that hurts
Contact
Start the conversation.
The first conversation costs nothing and changes what happens next. Bring the thing that hurts, or the thing you want to build.
Talk to an agent starts a voice conversation with our own AI agent, right here on the page. Prefer email? Pick the thing that hurts above and your mail app opens with the subject filled in. Nothing sends from this page.