Jamie Taylor — fractional CTO and technology consultant, Leeds.
Companies bring me the technology decisions that are too important to guess at, and too infrequent to justify a full-time hire.
Latest position 9 Oct 2026
Stop Estimating Effort: Measuring Value in the Agentic Era
When an agent writes the code and a developer directs it, what does an estimate really measure? Why effort is the wrong metric now, and what to track instead.
What the work produced
Outcomes75%
faster feature delivery, measured against DORA metrics across a globally distributed team
Ligentiatwelve months
£25,000
of hardware the business had been told it needed, and turned out not to
Small business assessmentone review
0deploys
to ship a new report type; report definitions live in configuration, not code
Bossie Hurleyplatform build
3months
from a blank page to a launched platform for analysing scientific data at scale
Sage PublishingMVP stage
1month
from no coding experience to a production React application, with mentoring
Journalist, self-fundedone engagement
Each figure links to the write-up it came from, including how it was measured. Numbers without a client and a source are marketing, not evidence.
What people call me about
EngagementsEvery senior technology decision lands on one person, and that person is running out of hours.
Fractional CTO
You're weighing an acquisition, and the code is the part nobody in the room can read.
Technology due diligence
You're scaling faster than the architecture was built for, and you need to know what breaks first.
Architecture and security reviews
Your engineers are using AI tools, and nobody agreed on what good looks like.
Agentic development and AI adoption
Your leadership team keeps having the same argument about direction, and it never quite resolves.
Technology strategy workshops
You have good engineers who've stopped growing, and no one senior enough to pull them up.
Engineering leadership development
The thing needs building, and standing up a permanent team to build it is the wrong shape.
Software development
Clients
Ligentia/
Billion-pound enterprises and two-person startups, usually at the point where a technology decision has become too expensive to get wrong.
The record
203 pieces since 20192026
Writing
Stop Estimating Effort: Measuring Value in the Agentic Era
9 Oct
Writing
Thinking on Purpose: Critical-Thinking Lessons for Technical Leaders
2 Oct
Writing
The Agent Files Nobody Owns: Auditing Your Agentic Setup
25 Sep
Writing
Working Alone, Together: What ‘Solo’ Teaches Remote Engineering Teams
18 Sep
News
The Modern .NET Show Returns for Season Nine with Bridging the Gap
14 Sep
Writing
Stop Screening for AI Tools: Hire for Judgement Instead
11 Sep
News
OwaspHeaders.Core Passes 2 Million Downloads
8 Sep
Writing
Into the Arena: Lessons for Tech Leaders from ‘Daring Greatly’
4 Sep
Writing
Hardening Your Agentic Development Setup: Rules, Permissions, and Tooling
28 Aug
Writing
Slow Productivity: Why Looking Busy Is Costing You Real Output
21 Aug
Writing
Three Workflows for Agentic Development: Choosing the Right Weight for the Task
14 Aug
Writing
The Podcasting Years
12 Aug
Writing
Make Time: Why Focus Is an Energy Problem, Not a Discipline Problem
7 Aug
Writing
Stop Vibe Coding: The Foundations of Agentic Development
31 Jul
Writing
Learning to Think Again: Rethinking Lessons from Adam Grant for Technical Leaders
24 Jul