Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently asked questions about working with RJJ Software: costs, engagement length, credentials, agentic development, security, industries, and how to get started.
I am often asked the same questions, so I have gathered the most common ones here. If you do not see your question below, schedule a consultation call and I will answer it directly.
Working with me
7 questionsHow do you differ from traditional IT consultancies?
I sell decisions, not hours. I work directly with the people setting business strategy on the choices behind a technology investment, so the spend tracks against an outcome you can name.
What size companies do you work with?
Most of the work is with Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and high-growth startups in the 10 to 100 employee range. I also take on enterprise engagements when the scope is specific; one of those was modernising the database systems for a globally recognised motorsports team.
How quickly will I see results?
Most clients see something useful inside the first two to four weeks: an architectural review surfaced, a stuck decision unblocked, a problem framed differently. Larger programmes take longer, but I try to land one tangible win early so the engagement is paying for itself before the bigger work lands.
Do you require long-term contracts?
No. Engagements are project-based or run month to month. The next month gets booked when the current one has earned it. Nobody benefits from a retainer that has stopped being useful.
What does an engagement cost?
There is no rate card. Workshops, technology due diligence, and architecture reviews are fixed price, quoted after a discovery call surfaces the actual scope. Ongoing work runs on a monthly retainer. For an SME, the fractional Chief Technology Officer (CTO) model usually works out at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire while keeping senior technical input in the conversation.
How long is a typical engagement?
It depends on the service. Fractional CTO retainers are 2 to 4 days a month on a rolling monthly basis. Technology due diligence and architecture reviews are one to two weeks, fixed price. Strategy workshops are anywhere from half a day to two full days. Training and embedded agentic development work is shaped around the team I am working with.
How do I start a conversation?
Book a consultation call directly. I reply to enquiries within one working day, and the first call is free.
About RJJ Software
6 questionsWere you a Microsoft MVP?
Yes; I held the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for Developer Technologies for four consecutive years. The award recognises independent technical contributors who put work back into the developer community: podcasts, open source, talks, and similar. It is renewed annually rather than granted for life.
What awards has RJJ Software won?
Most recently, Best Strategic SME Tech Consultancy 2025, and the West and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce Education Award for the training and mentoring work I do alongside client engagements. Before those, Most Visionary Software Development Managing Director in 2023.
What podcast do you host?
The Modern .NET Show. It is the longest-running podcast about modern .NET development; eight seasons since 2018, 194 episodes published, and aggregate listens just over 1.3 million across all platforms. Guests have come from Microsoft, GitHub, and the wider .NET community.
What open-source projects do you maintain?
OwaspHeaders.Core is the one most people end up using. It is a security-headers middleware for ASP.NET Core applications, currently sitting at over 1.9 million downloads from NuGet. The rest of what I put back into the .NET community lands as podcast episodes and conference talks rather than code.
Are you remote, or do you work on-site?
RJJ Software is remote first. Most engagements are fully remote with regular video calls. I travel for embedded delivery, workshops, or anything that genuinely benefits from being in the same room. Otherwise the time and money are better spent on the actual work.
Where can I read about previous client work?
The case studies section covers public engagements, from a database modernisation for a globally recognised motorsports team through to a twelve-month AI adoption programme at Ligentia. A handful of engagements are under non-disclosure and I can talk through those by phone if relevant.
What I do
4 questionsDo you help teams adopt agentic development and AI-assisted engineering?
Yes. Four years of it so far, across personal projects, open source, and client production code. The longest example is a twelve-month engagement at Ligentia that closed in May 2026 with a 75% improvement in their DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA) feature-delivery numbers; the case study has the detail. Current shape of the client work is some mix of training, workshops, and embedded delivery on real codebases. I am also writing the underlying workflow up as a series; “Just Throw AI At It” Is Not a Strategy covers the thinking behind it.
How do you approach security?
Security goes into the architecture from day one rather than as a layer bolted on at the end. Reviews cover threat modelling, data-flow analysis, and what the dependency tree quietly brings with it. I also maintain OwaspHeaders.Core, a security-headers middleware that has now passed 1.9 million NuGet downloads. That keeps the recommendations grounded in what is actually shipping in production rather than what looks good on a slide.
What industries have you worked in?
Across nearly twenty years, the list looks like:
- Manufacturing
- Artificial Intelligence
- Data Analytics
- Gaming and Video Games
- E-commerce
- Motor Sports Racing
- Aerodynamics
- Recruitment
- Law
- Logistics and Global Trade
The sector usually matters less than the question being asked. Some translation is always needed, but the underlying engineering questions are mostly the same ones.
Do you provide implementation services, or only consulting?
The headline service is strategic consultation, but I have stayed close to the code for almost twenty years, which is what makes the strategic calls reliable. I can guide architecture, stack selection, and implementation choices; for the actual building I pair with your existing engineers. Consultations typically cover:
- Architecture patterns and technology stack selection
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) strategy
- Cloud infrastructure planning (Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform)
- Microservices and containerisation guidance (Kubernetes, Docker)
- Security and compliance frameworks
- Development team structure and processes