Pod
Build the capability, not another residual team
A managed pre-production service that builds and stabilises the automation, test data, CI connection and evidence for agreed journeys — then hands over an asset you own.
If the platform is not built yet, start here
Map measures what regression costs on a platform that is already live. A programme still in flight has nothing stable to measure — but it does have something to build, and that is Pod.
Pod works on the programme as it is being delivered, in your repository and your pipeline. What it leaves behind is a working pre-production capability, which is what Cover picks up once the journeys go live.
What Pod is
- A defined service with an agreed scope and an end state
- Reserved pre-production capacity, managed by us
- A build that leaves working assets and a runbook behind
- Scope controlled through named journeys and complexity bands
What Pod is not
- Staff augmentation
- A contractor-hours bundle
- A promise that a named person attends every day
- An entitlement to a fixed count of journeys or checks
- A team you manage
This distinction is the product. A supplier who sells you people has every reason to keep selling you people; a supplier who sells you a finished capability has to finish it.
What exists at the end that did not exist before
| Working automation | Checks that run, for the journeys agreed in the register. |
|---|---|
| CI connection | Those checks wired into your pipeline, running against builds and release candidates. |
| Test data | Arrangements that let the checks run repeatably, without production data. |
| Evidence | A record of what was checked, what passed, and what was not covered. |
| Runbook | How it works and how to run it, written for someone who was not there. |
| Handover | A defined end state, not an open-ended attachment. |
Named journeys, and complexity bands
Scope is set by naming journeys, not by counting hours. Each one is banded for complexity — Standard = 1 unit, Complex = 2, Advanced = 3, with anything Exceptional quoted separately. The bands size the work. They are not a delivery date for any single journey.
You receive planned service capacity — an allowance we schedule against, not a promise that named people will attend. If we fall short, it carries into the next month as capacity, not as a refund. If you block us, we record it and it does not carry.
What is settled before the work starts
- You own the test code, in your repository. Saucinco retains its own platform, templates and orchestration.
- Accepted Pod-built scope is not charged again at Cover. The build is paid once.
- Overlap between Pod and Cover is controlled and limited, allowed only where it is genuinely required.
- Rollover support after handover is bounded, and available only while the Pod term still applies.
- Pod owns pre-production. Cover begins when accepted journeys go live — never by testing in production.
Discuss Pod readiness
If a programme is heading for go-live and the pre-production capability does not exist yet, that is the conversation.