Every project I ship follows the same six-stage path — from a rough clickable prototype to a monitored production deployment behind CI/CD. Here's exactly how it works, with real examples from the work I've shipped.
Small projects move through these in a week; platforms take months. The stages don't change — only their depth does.
Before a line of code: map the problem, the users, and the one metric that means success. I cut scope hard here — the goal is the smallest thing that proves the idea, not the feature list.
A clickable prototype in days, not weeks. Real layout, fake data, the happy path working end-to-end. AI-assisted scaffolding lets me put something tangible in front of you fast — so we course-correct on a screen, not a spec.
Pick boring, proven tools — then the one sharp tool the problem actually needs. The data model and API contracts get locked here, because they're the most expensive thing to change later.
Ship one working slice at a time — backend, frontend, and integration for a single feature — rather than a half-built everything. AI pair-programming is a daily tool here; review and tests keep it honest.
Tests, security, and performance happen before launch, not after the first incident. Automated tests cover the paths that matter; I review for the OWASP basics and profile the slow spots.
Push to main and watch it go live. CI runs the tests, deploys to staging, then production — with a rollback path and monitoring in place. Then the real work starts: measure, learn, improve.
Every push to main runs the same automated path. If a step fails, it stops — and production stays on the last good build.
If any check fails, the pipeline stops — production stays on the last good build, and a rollback is one command away. Small, frequent releases keep that safe.
The tools change with every project. These don't.
A thin feature working end-to-end beats a wide one half-built. Something demoable every few days.
Critical paths get automated tests. Inputs get validated. Secrets stay out of the repo. Not optional.
Proven stacks for 90% of the system, and exactly one specialised tool where the problem genuinely demands it.
AI-assisted development since 2024 — for scaffolding, review, and copy — always behind human judgement and tests.
A real CI/CD pipeline from week one. Small, frequent releases are safer than rare, large ones.
From architecture to the production server. One person accountable for the whole path, not a handoff chain.
Whether it's a prototype that needs hardening or a green-field build from scratch — I can own it from architecture to the live deploy.