The five stages of an engagement
Every engagement moves through the same five stages, whether it is a three-week review or a programme run for a year. The small fixed pieces are a way of buying one stage at a time; nothing obliges you to go on to the next one.
Discovery
We are engaged to find the real constraint, and to say what we find even where it contradicts the brief.
Ends with A written finding, with the evidence behind it.
Strategy and shape
The finding becomes a plan tied to one measurable outcome. The shape and the fee are agreed before any delivery begins.
Ends with A proposal: outcome, shape, fee, duration.
Delivery
The work itself. Governance is set up as part of it, running from the first week, not added at the end.
Ends with The work done, the system in production, or the bid submitted.
Launch and governance
What was built or won is handed over already running: reporting, registers, review cadence and named owners in place.
Ends with A written close, and Cadence switched on.
Run
The retained relationship, named as its own stage: the programme office, the AI system operated, the rhythm kept.
Ends with A monthly review that keeps happening.
One named owner, end to end
Every engagement is owned end to end by one person at Vardonne. Today that is the firm’s managing director. He is in the first conversation, signs the proposal, chairs the gate reviews and signs the written close, and is the person you raise a problem with. Accountability for delivering your programme stays with your senior responsible owner; ours is for our work, our judgement and this relationship.
Three ways to engage
The shape is chosen at stage two, before any delivery work starts, and the fee is set with it.
A fixed piece
A defined piece of work with a stated outcome and a stated fee.
- Suits
- Reviews, assessments, recoveries, a bid, a roundtable, a survey
- Charged as
- A fixed fee, agreed before it starts
A retained role
Senior capacity on your side, on a statement of work that says what the time is for.
- Suits
- Programme and portfolio assurance, PMO, operating AI, a quarterly survey series
- Charged as
- A monthly retainer
A scoped build
A system built and hosted by ArcSystemsTechnology, with Vardonne leading the delivery.
- Suits
- Pilot to production, a new platform or tool
- Charged as
- Scoped and priced after assessment
No day rates in any of the three. Time is bought against a statement of work.
Where each practice starts
Each of the four practices enters at a different stage, and most engagements begin with a fixed piece in stage one.
- Discovery
- Delivery review · AI readiness assessment · Operating financials · Tender readiness
- Strategy and shape
- Enterprise strategy · AI governance for tenders
- Delivery
- Delivery leadership · Recovery · Bid support · Build and hosting
- Launch and governance
- Win and mobilise · Cadence
- Run
- PMO as a service · Delivery leadership · Cadence
Every shape, with what it covers and what it costs, is under Services.
How quality is measured
Inside stages three and four the work is run to gates. Each stage of the work ends at one, and each gate answers one question.
The six stage gates, and the four areas rated at each
Mobilise
Are we set up to start?
Assess
Do we understand the problem and mandate?
Plan
Is the plan agreed and funded?
Deliver
Is the work on track?
Go-live
Is it ready to go live?
Close
Was the value delivered?
At every gate four areas are rated: programme on track, build quality, contract health and stakeholder confidence. A formal checkpoint: each area is rated green, amber or red and signed off with you before the next stage begins. Nothing moves on while an area is amber without a decision in writing.
- Stakeholder engagement Softer measure
- A named sponsor, a standing check-in
- Feedback at every gate, acted on
- A direct line to the managing director
- Contract health Harder measure
- Scope, fee and value reviewed monthly
- Changes agreed in writing first
- Early warning when health turns amber
- Quality of what is delivered Harder measure
- Acceptance criteria set before build
- Security review before go-live
- AI drift and output quality thresholds
- Value and handover Both measures
- Value objective set at the start
- Benefits measured after go-live
- Owners trained; lessons written up
Who does the work
The person you meet is the person who leads the work. Where an engagement needs more hands, associates are brought in for that specific work, named in the statement of work, and engaged through their own companies, with employment status assessed in writing for each engagement. Nobody is substituted for a junior after signature.
What the client brings
A sponsor who can decide; access to the people the work touches; and the honest position, including the parts that are not going well. A delivery review that starts from a rosy picture is a review of the picture.
Independence
No vendor pays us to recommend it. Where a system build is done by ArcSystemsTechnology, the same group's build arm, that is stated in the proposal and priced under its own letter, so the two are never confused.