Projects look green until they become escalations
Status reports show green. The client has a different story. Risks were visible for weeks — just not to leadership.
Fractional delivery leadership · custom software firms
Get delivery under control
before the next client escalation
forces you to.
A monthly delivery leadership rhythm for 50–300 person custom software companies with existing PMs, active client work, and growing project complexity. Clearer project health, earlier risk visibility, tighter scope and margin, and a PM team that all report the same way.
20-minute fit call · no prep needed · if it's not a fit, I'll say so directly
14
Years in delivery leadership
50+
Successful projects
30
PMs coached or led
Who comes here
I am a Founder or CEO
Delivery unpredictability is costing you margin, client trust, and leadership focus. You need control before it becomes a crisis.
See the fractional offer →
I am a Head of Delivery, COO, or CTO
Your PMs manage differently. Project health is hard to compare. Risks surface late. You need a clearer operating rhythm.
See the fractional offer →
I am hiring a Delivery Manager
Looking for a full-time, interim, or contract Head of Delivery? CV, experience, and availability are on the resume page.
View resume →
The pattern
Your projects shouldn't look fine until they explode.
You have PMs. You have standups. You may even have dashboards. And still, the real problems show up too late — a client escalates, a scope change that was "small" three weeks ago has eaten the margin, a PM says everything is fine but the client's story is different.
The problem isn't one lazy PM. It's inconsistent delivery control.
PMs report differently
Every PM has their own format. Leadership can't compare project health across teams. Escalations look sudden even when signals were there for weeks.
Scope changes erode margin
Small unapproved changes stack up. Budget drifts. Nobody owns the reconciliation. The margin is gone before anyone notices.
Leadership lacks comparable project health
Founder or Head of Delivery steps in once damage is visible. That works at 30 people. It stops working at 150.
The offer
Senior delivery leadership, without a full-time hire.
A monthly fractional engagement — embedded with your PMs, running a weekly delivery control rhythm across your projects. Not an advisory retainer. Not a one-off audit. A recurring operating layer.
Monthly fee
$3k–$4k
Per month, billed monthly
Working model
8–10 hrs
Per week, embedded with your PMs
Best fit
50–300 person custom software firms
With existing PMs and growing delivery complexity
Start risk-free · 2-week diagnostic
The first two weeks are a full diagnostic — not billable time.
We look at your projects, PMs, reporting gaps, and delivery risks. If the findings aren't useful by the end of week 2, you stop — no invoice for the rest of the month, no pressure to continue.
See what the diagnostic covers →The Predictable Delivery Operating System
Five layers that install senior delivery control without a PMO rebuild.
Works with the setup you already have — your projects, PMs, reporting, and client communication.
Portfolio visibility
Leadership uses first
A clear view of project health across status, timeline confidence, budget pressure, client sentiment, delivery risks, and reporting gaps. Leadership stops guessing what "green" means from one team to the next.
Risk & escalation
See it before the client does
Hidden blockers, unclear ownership, weak client communication, unmanaged dependencies, low-confidence forecasts — surfaced weekly, before they turn into a call from an unhappy client.
Scope & margin
Where profit leaks
Small unapproved changes. Budget drift. Weak change-request discipline. Delivery commitments made during the sales cycle. This is where margin disappears — usually without a single dramatic moment.
PM discipline
Consistency, not blame
How PMs handle reporting, risk ownership, communication, forecasting, and escalation timing. The goal is helping them operate with more consistency — not producing a maturity model that sits in a slide deck.
Leadership control
Observations become decisions
Weekly delivery review. Priority risks with owners. A short monthly summary for the CEO or Head of Delivery — what changed, what's still risky, what needs a decision this week.
Real engagements · anonymized
What this looks like in practice.
Case 01
Escalated project stabilization
A delivery reset to stabilize a mobile project.
Before
Strategic client losing trust. 2-week sprints against an early plan that no longer matched the real product complexity — missed commitments, rising bugs, falling morale.
Intervention
Audited the project, re-baselined the plan, moved the team to Kanban, coached the PM on client communication, stayed in governance until delivery stabilized.
After
~60% fewer new bugs sprint-over-sprint. Releases from every 4 weeks → ~10 days. Delivered with quality; strategic relationship protected.
Case 02
Portfolio visibility improvement
From inconsistent PM reporting to evidence-based portfolio control.
Before
300-person services company. 25 projects, 15 PMs, no shared process. Inconsistent reporting; risks and escalations surfaced late.
Intervention
Built a shared delivery operating model — SDLC, Jira rules, templates, metrics library, PM skill matrix, audits, and a portfolio dashboard with evidence-backed RAG reporting.
After
Portfolio status work: 10–12 hrs → 1–2 hrs. Client escalations: 1–2/month → ~1 every 3–4 months. Risks visible earlier; margin and utilization control improved.
Case 03
Presales-to-delivery handoff
From transferring documents to transferring delivery context.
Before
Handoff package missed client context, agreements, assumptions, and rationale. Delivery rediscovered the deal after kickoff — repeated client questions, estimate disputes, scope friction.
Intervention
Redesigned the company-wide handoff: defined package, validation checklist, internal kickoff before client kickoff, joint stakeholder and risk analysis, assumption review, production PM brought in pre-contract.
After
Smoother kickoffs. Fewer repeated questions, estimate disputes, and scope disputes. Less presales–production friction. Client NPS improved. Live in 2–3 weeks; rolled out in 1–2 months.
What clients say
"
Our project reports looked fine but didn't show real risk. That changed in the first month.
"
We started seeing delivery issues earlier and had better conversations with PMs, without the blame.
"
The biggest value wasn't theory. It was practical visibility and a weekly rhythm we actually used.
Next step
Right now, delivery probably depends on personal chasing. It doesn't have to.
On the call, we'll review your current project load, PM setup, reporting rhythm, and where delivery control feels weakest. If there's a fit, we start with the 2-week diagnostic. If I don't see a fit, I'll say so directly.
- 20-minute fit call — no prep needed
- If it's not a fit, I'll say so directly
- NDA-friendly — no client-sensitive details needed for a first call