Question 1

What makes Aijutsu different?

Accepted Answer

We operate as builder-executives: leadership and management expertise, backed by hands-on engineering. Offshore practices mainly sell workload capacity and boutique practices sell architecture expertise — both are organised around implementation. We organise around the business outcome that implementation is supposed to produce, and provide capacity selectively, when it actually serves that outcome.

So you get a senior operator rather than a bench of juniors behind an account manager. Over a decade delivering in highly-regulated domains — government, cybersecurity, fintech, cloud — including taking companies through ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II audits and growing engineering teams from a few people to multi-regional. Paired with AI-leveraged delivery, that's how a small practice ships production software in weeks instead of quarters.

And we're coaching-informed: our founder is a formally trained ontological coach, so levelling your team up happens while we deliver, not in a handover meeting at the end. The whole point is that the change outlasts us — you keep the systems, the documentation, and the ability to run both. Get in, do a good job, level your team up, get out.

Question 2

Why do you not want engagements to drag and how do you prevent that?

Accepted Answer

Because an engagement that drags means you still have the problem. Most consulting models quietly reward exactly that — billing for time and materials earns more the longer your problem stays unsolved, so scope creeps and handover slips. Nobody has to act in bad faith for it to happen; the incentive structure does it on its own. We would rather not be paid to keep a problem around.

So we design against it. Success criteria and metrics are agreed with you up front, so what counts as done is objective instead of a judgement call we get to make. Readiness sprints are fixed-price and fixed-scope, so they cannot creep. Handover happens continuously with sprints as checkpoints rather than being dumped on you at the end, and exit is a named stage of our process — not an awkward conversation nobody wants to start.

You can end the engagement at any checkpoint if you are not seeing ROI, and we close with a blameless evaluation against the business objective we started from, including when something did not work. Our incentive is the outcome, not the billable hours.

Question 3

Our codebase is a mess. Is it too early for a sprint?

Accepted Answer

A messy codebase is one of the best reasons to run one. The diagnostic maps what's actually there — ownership, coupling, risk hotspots — so you can decide what to fix first based on evidence instead of the loudest opinion in the room.

Question 4

Who owns the IP, code, domain, and infrastructure after handover?

Accepted Answer

You do — all of it. Code, documentation, infrastructure, domain names, and reports are fully yours on payment, and they live in accounts you control.

Unlike some other vendors out there, we will never withhold your domain name, your cloud accounts, or your codebase behind a recurring maintenance fee after hand-over. Handover includes runbooks for Day-1 operations and documentation for continuity, so your own team — or any competent vendor — can run what we built without us.

Question 5

How do engagements start?

Accepted Answer

Email Joseph directly if you know him, otherwise fill in the contact form. We'll respond within 3 business days to schedule a scoping conversation. For all work, we sign an NDA before you share anything about your idea. We will ask for permission to feature you as a case study if we find its work that we'd like to showcase.

Question 6

How is a readiness sprint different from an adoption sprint?

Accepted Answer

A readiness sprint diagnoses and prioritises — it ends in a report you own outright. An adoption sprint executes — it ends in delivered change and a full handover. Running readiness first means the adoption sprint starts from evidence, but you can enter an adoption sprint directly and we'll run our own discovery.

Question 7

What happens after a readiness sprint?

Accepted Answer

You get a report you own outright: prioritised opportunities and prerequisites. You can act on it yourself, engage us for the adoption sprint, or take it to another vendor — no lock-in.

Question 8

Do we have to keep paying you to maintain what you deliver?

Accepted Answer

No. The engagement is designed around its own exit: documentation and artifacts are handed over with sprints as checkpoints, and we leave when your in-house team can carry the work.

If you do want us involved after launch, that's a separate arrangement you opt into — never a condition of keeping access to your own systems.

Question 9

How is pricing structured?

Accepted Answer

Readiness sprints are fixed-price, fixed-scope. Adoption engagements and custom development are scoped after an initial conversation, with an indicative range given up front.

Question 10

Can you work with our existing team?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Our work intends to augment what your in-house team can do, not replace them. Where we can, we also help to coach and level your team up as we deliver so that the effects of our work stays long after we're gone.

The implementation itself can be done by us, by people we introduce, or by anyone you contract directly — it makes no difference to us, as long as the outcome lands.

Question 11

Do you work remotely or on-site?

Accepted Answer

We optimise for effectiveness, preferring face-time for discussions, stalkeholder interviews, and anything involving the heart-ware aspect; delivery work involving reports, writing code, and computers is typically remote with regular check-ins.

If you're not in Singapore, all meetings and work will be done remotely over a platform of your choice. Transport arrangements can be made on a needs-basis if face-time is required.

Question 12

What technologies do you work with?

Accepted Answer

We're stack-agnostic and we generally recommend only what fits your team and constraints based on our experience across cloud platforms, modern stacks, and emerging AI tools.

Question 13

Which compliance frameworks do you cover?

Accepted Answer

We focus mainly on ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II certifications; GDPR and HIPAA do not have certifications, if those are a requirement, we understand them too and can structure the governance and evidence-collection foundations we build to account for them.

Question 14

Do you work with clients outside Singapore?

Accepted Answer

Yes. We're based in Singapore, but for clients elsewhere all meetings and delivery happen remotely over a platform of your choice. Travel can be arranged on a needs-basis if face-time is required.

Question 15

How quickly can an engagement start?

Accepted Answer

We begin within three days of deposit-invoice payment and NDA signing. Before that, contracting is deliberately light: a stakeholder meeting to pin down objectives, an MSA review, and a Statement of Work.

Question 16

What does an engagement cost?

Accepted Answer

Custom application development starts at $1,000 SGD, readiness sprints at $8,000 SGD (fixed-price, fixed-scope), and adoption sprints at $12,000 SGD. See the pricing page for how the models work.