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ELEMENT 31

Glossary: in-house project

An in-house project is the engagement form in which the customer describes what should be true when the work is done, and certified engineers build it as a scoped project and hand it back running.

· 2 min read

IN SHORT

An in-house project is the second form an E31 Consulting engagement can take. The customer describes what should be true when the work is done, and certified engineers build it as a scoped project on the customer's Czar and hand it back running: the published version, the material it may read, the calls it may make, the role that approves, and the notes the operators need to change it.

An in-house project is the second form an E31 Consulting engagement can take: the customer describes what should be true when the work is done, and certified engineers build it as a scoped project and hand it back running on the customer's appliance. The handoff includes the published version, the material it may read, the calls it may make, the role that approves, and the notes the operators need to change it.

Why it matters

Not every use case needs an engineer at the desk. Some are well enough understood that the customer can write the statement of done, name the materials, the approvals, and the systems of record in scope, and let the engineers build against it. A corpus people can question is often like this. A second version of something the site already runs is almost always like this.

An in-house project gives those customers a scoped engagement with a defined end, without giving up anything about where the work lives. It is still built on the customer's Czar, inside the customer's posture, and it still ends with the site's people able to change it.

How it works here

The scope is agreed first: what done means, which documents the agent may read, which systems it may call, who approves at each point, and who will take the handoff. The engineers build on the customer's appliance, in the posture already chosen. Air-gapped work is built air-gapped.

At handoff, the engineers bring the published version and the notes. Each change in scope is performed by a member of the site team on the real appliance before the handoff is signed off. The operating picture in the version is walked through with the site's IT and compliance. Engineer access ends.

The word in-house refers to the customer's house. The project is built in the customer's building, on the customer's hardware, and nothing about it leaves. The practice keeps no copy and holds no access afterward.

Customers choosing between the two forms usually ask whether the work can be described from outside the room. If it can, a project fits. If the real packet has to be learned by sitting with the desk, the forward-deployed form is the better fit.

Questions this raises

Where is an in-house project built?
On the customer's Czar, inside the posture the customer has already chosen. Air-gapped work is built air-gapped. The practice does not build elsewhere and move the result in, and keeps no copy afterward.
What does the handoff of a project include?
The published version, the corpus it may read, the declared routes it may call, the roles that publish and approve, and the operator notes. The site team performs each change in scope on the real appliance and IT and compliance walk through the operating picture before sign-off.
Can a project follow a forward-deployed engagement?
Often it does. Once a site knows its own use case well enough to write the statement of done for the next version, a project is usually the right form for building it.

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