The Five Stages
What actually happens in each stage of an engagement, and what the client receives.
The Five Stages
The public Studio page advertises this methodology. This document defines what each stage actually contains, so the claim is true.
Stage 01 — Discovery#
Purpose: understand the problem well enough to quote it accurately.
What happens:
- Read the client's brief, existing site, and any designs provided
- Identify user roles and what each role needs to do
- Identify data entities and their relationships
- Identify third-party integrations required (payments, auth, email, storage)
- Identify the hard parts and name them explicitly
- List open questions and get them answered before quoting
Deliverable: Technical Architecture Brief — a written document stating the understood problem, proposed approach, identified risks, and open assumptions.
Duration: 2–4 days. Unpaid for engagements at or near the floor; paid separately for larger or ambiguous projects.
Do not skip this to move faster. Every scope dispute traces back to a question that should have been asked here.
Stage 02 — Scope & Milestones#
Purpose: convert understanding into a bounded, priced commitment.
What happens:
- Draft the scope as two explicit lists: what is included and what is not
- Break work into milestones, each with named deliverables
- Assign duration and payment percentage per milestone
- Set the price
- Produce the proposal and recorded walkthrough
- Client accepts in writing before any code is written
Deliverable: Written proposal (PDF) with milestone schedule, plus a recorded walkthrough.
The excluded list matters as much as the included list. It is the document you point at when a change request arrives.
Stage 03 — Build & Iteration#
Purpose: produce working software with no surprises.
What happens:
- Work proceeds milestone by milestone
- Staging environment deployed from day one, client has the link
- Status update at least weekly, without being asked
- Milestone completion demoed before invoicing
- Scope changes go through a written change order — never absorbed silently
Deliverable: Working staging build, milestone demos, status updates.
Stage 04 — Deploy & Harden#
Purpose: make it safe to hand over.
What happens:
- Production environment provisioned
- Environment variables and secrets configured, none committed to the repo
- Database indexes reviewed against actual query patterns
- HTTPS, security headers, rate limiting on public endpoints
- Error monitoring configured
- Custom domain configured and verified
- Basic load sanity check
Deliverable: Live production deployment with monitoring.
Stage 05 — Handover#
Purpose: the client is never dependent on Orvenath to run their own product.
What happens:
- Repository ownership transferred to the client
- Architecture documentation written and delivered
- Environment variable guide with every key documented
- Deployment and rollback instructions
- Recorded walkthrough of the codebase and admin functions
- 30-day bug warranty begins
Deliverable: Full codebase ownership, documentation set, warranty period.
See Handover Checklist.