Diagnosis before advice.
An independent advisory practice led by Prof. Daniel Russo. I diagnose engineering organisations the way research is done: from the inside, against validated models, with findings you can trace back to evidence.
Who I advise
CTOs and CIOs
The transformation delivered process, not outcomes. Before spending again, you need to know which layer of the organisation actually needs fixing.
VPs of Engineering
A few teams keep improving; most plateau. The difference between them is measurable, and it is rarely the process.
Consultancies
Your clients expect frameworks that survive contact with reality. Models co-developed and validated in the field hold where generic frameworks do not.
Every engagement runs on the discipline I use in research. Four phases, each with published instruments behind it.
Observe
Fieldwork inside the organisation: structured interviews across roles and levels, observation of how work actually happens, analysis of processes and documents. Not a questionnaire from the outside.
Model
Findings are set against validated models of how engineering organisations behave: team effectiveness, agile transformation success, AI adoption, and software quality. All four models are published and peer-reviewed.
Validate
Explanations are tested before they become recommendations. Where the evidence is thin, the report says so; a diagnosis you can trust states its own limits.
Translate
You receive findings in decision language: what to change, what to leave alone, and what the evidence says about each. Recommendations trace back to observations, not to convention.
Short Diagnostic
A focused investigation of a specific organisational question. You receive a written report with findings, their evidential basis, and specific recommendations, for organisations that want a rigorous, independent answer before committing to something larger.
In practice: what separates effective teams →Embedded Organisational Audit
A comprehensive diagnostic of the organisational dynamics shaping your engineering practice: structured interviews across roles and levels, process analysis, and a traceable account of what is actually happening inside the organisation.
In practice: three years inside a transformation →Ongoing Advisory Retainer
Monthly access for engineering leaders who want a standing, research-grounded perspective on organisational decisions, team design, and transformation as it unfolds. It can also take the form of one-to-one coaching of a leader.
In practice: a multi-year model built with Deloitte →Advisory work is confidential by default. These four engagements can be discussed, at different levels of disclosure. Each one links the work to the published evidence behind it.
A Big Four practice needed more than opinions about software quality.
Deloitte’s banking clients kept raising the same concerns about complexity and cost. A multi-year collaboration turned them into SQuAP, a validated quality model connecting three ISO standards, now an open ontology.
Read the engagement → Government agency · Mission-critical40–50%A transformation that delivered on paper and still felt wrong.
Three years embedded in a mission-critical agile transformation: cost per line of code down 40–50%, certification passed, and evidence that the decisive investment is in developers, not process roles.
Read the engagement → The Liberators · Team effectiveness1,978From a research question to a commercial diagnostic product.
A seven-year collaboration with The Liberators produced a validated model of Scrum team effectiveness, tested across nearly 2,000 teams. That model is now the scientific foundation of Columinity, their team-improvement product.
Read the engagement → Client under NDA · AI adoption55%Their engineers saw the value of AI tools. Adoption still stalled.
Work for a client that cannot be named became a two-phase study of 283 engineers, published in TOSEM. The finding: workflow compatibility, not perceived usefulness, decides whether AI tools stick.
Read the engagement →Not every engagement can be shown. Confidential work includes one-to-one coaching of engineering leaders.