Model the work first
The entities, the states, and the transitions. Getting this wrong is the expensive mistake; every screen afterwards is comparatively cheap to change.
guest@make-directory:~$ cat ./capabilities/web-app-development.md
make-directory:~/capabilities/web-apps
Web App Development
Software for the work that does not fit off-the-shelf systems.
Portals, dashboards, internal tools, and workflow applications — built around how the work actually happens, and maintainable by whoever inherits them.
guest@make-directory:~$ ls ./how-we-do-it
how we approach it
What the work involves.
Roles and permissions early
Who can see and do what, decided at the start. Retrofitting access control into a working application is one of the most costly changes there is.
Interfaces for people doing a job
Internal tools are used all day by people who already know the domain. They need speed and density, not onboarding.
Integrations as part of the design
Most internal applications live between systems. What syncs, in which direction, and what happens when one side is down.
A codebase that survives handover
Readable, typed where it helps, documented where it is surprising, and tested where breakage would be silent.
Production from the first release
Monitoring, error reporting, backups, and a deployment anyone on the team can run.
guest@make-directory:~$ cat ./what-we-think.md
so you know how we decide
Where we will push back.
The first version should be smaller than you think
Most of the value of planning is what it removes. A narrow first release that people actually use beats a complete one that arrives late.
Buy before you build
We have talked clients out of builds when configuring something existing would do. It is a shorter engagement for us and a better outcome for them.
guest@make-directory:~$ cat ./what-this-is-for.md
where this gets used
What we get called in to solve with it.
If one of these describes your situation more closely than the technology does, start there instead.
guest@make-directory:~$ mkdir ./what-needs-to-change
next step
Tell us what you are trying to change.
Describe it however makes sense to you. If this turns out not to be what you need, we will point you at whatever is.
Would you rather look at code?
We build and operate our own software in the open — infrastructure tooling, a modernization toolchain, and a research arm. All of it is public, so you can see how we work before you talk to us.
What we build