Industries with a clear place in the wider system.

Then stopping is the correct outcome, and it should be possible without losing everything spent. Building in slices means there is always a working state to stop at, and testing the riskiest assumption first means the bad news arrives while the investment is still small. That is the entire point of sequencing risk early rather than saving the hard part for last. A supplier who cannot tell you that something is not working, or who keeps building on momentum after the evidence has turned, is more expensive than one who says it plainly.

Map users, decisions, roles, data, integrations, current workarounds and measurable outcomes. Prototype the most uncertain workflow or technical dependency before turning every idea into a backlog.

A prototype tests an assumption and may be disposable. An MVP is a minimal operable product for real users, with essential validation, security, administration, measurement and support.

Use server-side validation, scoped credentials, idempotency keys, signed webhooks, bounded timeouts, retries and a reconciliation job that catches whatever slipped through. The interface needs matching states: pending, failed and recovered, shown honestly. An order must never depend on the customer's browser returning successfully from a payment page.

Include environment documentation, schema and migration history, build and deployment steps, test coverage, operating responsibilities, known limitations and access owned by the client—not only a repository archive.

Cost follows workflow depth, integration count, data sensitivity and how much of the surrounding operation has to change, not screen count. A bounded first release solving one journey is far more estimable than an open brief. Expect a discovery step to produce a defensible range; anyone quoting a fixed figure before understanding the data model is guessing.

Configure wherever a supported product already matches the process closely. Custom work earns its cost when the process is a genuine competitive difference, when licence costs scale badly against users, or when integration and data ownership requirements cannot be met by the product. The honest answer is often a hybrid.

You do. The repository, environments, credentials and deployment accounts should be in your organisation's name from the start rather than transferred at the end. Contracts should state IP assignment explicitly, and any third-party or open-source components should be listed with their licences.