For US engineering leaders evaluating external development partnerships.
Start with decision rights
Before development begins, decide who approves architecture, security changes, dependencies, production releases, and scope adjustments. Write down the decision process.
Keep access and ownership clear
Use organization-controlled repositories and appropriately scoped credentials where possible. Agree on intellectual property, access reviews, and offboarding in the contract.
Make quality observable
Set expectations for pull requests, automated tests, documentation, release notes, and demonstration checkpoints. Review working software, not just status slides.
Measure outcomes, not activity
Use accepted deliverables, operational quality, and cycle time as signals. Hours logged or ticket counts alone do not tell you whether a project is healthy.
Where to go next
Explore our managed engineering model or start a conversation about your delivery needs.