How Comtau works
Each stage hands a written output to the next
Comtau moves from diagnosis to decisions to controlled implementation through one operating chain. Nothing moves forward on a conversation alone: every stage ends with something written, and a gate that must hold.
The stages
What happens, what it produces, what must hold
- 01
Assess
Establish the facts about the systems, the team, delivery and the business need.
- Hands forward
- Assessment findings and a risk register
- Gate before next
- Findings agreed with you
- Why it lowers risk
- Decisions start from what is true, not from assumptions.
- 02
Architect
Make the architecture and technology decisions explicitly, with options and trade-offs.
- Hands forward
- Architecture decision records
- Gate before next
- Each decision approved by a person
- Why it lowers risk
- Nothing is built on a decision nobody made on purpose.
- 03
Decompose
Break the plan into bounded units of work, each with a stated scope and its checks.
- Hands forward
- An implementation plan of scoped work units
- Gate before next
- Order and scope agreed
- Why it lowers risk
- Work cannot quietly grow beyond what was agreed.
- 04
Execute
Implement one unit at a time, AI-assisted, in observable sessions a person can stop.
- Hands forward
- Working changes, unit by unit
- Gate before next
- Stops on failed checks, scope growth or missing approval
- Why it lowers risk
- Speed from AI assistance without handing it control.
- 05
Verify
Run the checks, add independent review, and record what was proven.
- Hands forward
- Verification evidence
- Gate before next
- Checks pass; reviews have no blocking findings
- Why it lowers risk
- Progress is shown with evidence, not reported as a status.
- 06
Hand over or continue
Close each unit with a handoff note that the next unit, or your team, starts from.
- Hands forward
- Handover documentation
- Gate before next
- The next unit, or your team, starts from it
- Why it lowers risk
- Context stays with the company, not with one person.
Controls
Controls that travel with the work
The stages set the order. These controls decide what may happen inside them.
1Before build
Decisions recorded before build
Each significant decision is written down with its context, options and consequences, and approved by a person before implementation depends on it.
Bounded units of work
Every unit states its mission, the parts of the system it may change, what is out of scope and the checks that will prove it.
2During execution
AI-assisted, human-controlled
AI coding agents implement each unit in a fresh session from a pinned starting point. An operator can step in, interrupt or stop it at any time.
Stops instead of improvising
When a unit meets scope growth, a failing check, a conflict or a missing approval, execution stops and a person decides.
No green by shortcut
Tests are never weakened, skipped or rewritten to make a check pass. An unexplained failure blocks closure.
3Before anything closes
Independent review
Separate read-only reviews check architecture, security and evidence. Whoever did the work does not sign it off.
Evidence per unit
Each unit closes with the exact commands run, their results, the tests that prove the change and the tests that prove what must not happen.
Context carried forward
Each unit ends with a handoff note the next unit reads first, so context is carried forward instead of rediscovered.
What gets documented
The written trail your company keeps
Every stage leaves something you can inspect without being in the room. Context stays with the company, not with one person.
- Leadership and board
- Decisions, their trade-offs and the roadmap they serve.
- Your engineering team
- Scoped units, their checks and the handoff notes to continue from.
- A successor or new hire
- A handover package built throughout, not assembled at the end.
- assessment/Assess
- findings
- risk-register
- decisions/Architect
- adr-context-options-consequences
- plan/Decompose
- scoped-work-units
- evidence/Verify
- commands-and-results
- review-findings
- handoff/Hand over
- note-per-unit
- handover-documentation
Where it applies
Leadership only, or carried into implementation
Every engagement uses the first stages. Whether Comtau continues into delivery is agreed per engagement, not assumed.
Technology leadership
Facts established, decisions made and recorded. Your team, or another partner, builds from them.
Carried into implementation, when agreed
The same leadership takes the decisions into scoped, AI-assisted implementation and shows the evidence that it works.
Bring a decision that needs to become working software
Tell us where things stand. We’ll say which stages your situation needs - and whether Comtau should carry them.
Direct conversation with a senior CTO/architect. We’ll review your situation and determine the useful next step.
What happens next
- 01You explain the situation
- 02We identify the decisions and the ownership they need
- 03We define the useful next engagement
Talk to a senior CTO/architect
Book a call