Describe the failed business result
Use one invented case: the wrong supplier's item changed, a blank erased a price, a carton became one item, or an older feed replaced a newer one. Say what was stored before and what should remain afterward. A request to automate all purchasing is too broad for a small repair; a specific failed decision can be tested without handing over live stock or prices.
- Document current manual review and exceptions without inventing labour savings.
- Name the application and whether it can run on synthetic inputs.
- One defect or one new review interaction is the initial unit of scope, not a promise to replace your inventory system.
Name the policy owners
Purchasing approves product equivalence, pack units and allowed price changes. The source owner defines full versus delta coverage and source versioning. The application owner authorises its test and code route. An importer cannot invent these policies safely. Unknown rules belong in an exception path until the responsible owner decides them.
- Do not turn missing source information into a zero price or unavailable item by guesswork.
- Accounts, supplier terms and live publication authority remain with their holders.
- No request for an owner without a developer to operate a database or share a password is implied.
Choose between repair and preview
If existing logic gives one wrong deterministic result, a failing-then-passing regression may define the repair. If users lack one bounded way to inspect proposed changes or exceptions, a feature preview may define the new interaction. The existing offers still require a safe authorised code handoff and, for a feature, an existing isolated private preview. If nobody can approve or merge the change, agree the delivery route before accepting work; do not assume an account invitation solves it.
- A live importer that can be reproduced only with production credentials is not eligible for the local bug offer.
- Supplier retrieval, production corrections, new accounts and real purchasing actions need separate authority and scope.
Start with a low-trust priced enquiry
Describe the invented before/input/expected-after case, stack, policy owner and desired outcome. The current bug repair starts from £295 after bounded reproduction and a fixed quote; the current one-feature preview starts from £750 after agreeing criteria, existing private preview and two revision rounds. Both prices are untested proposals. An enquiry does not book work, authorise an import or start payment; payment follows agreed checks and sign-off. No source code, private price lists, supplier access or customer data in first contact.
- Documentation and this buyer hypothesis do not establish paying demand, qualified arrivals or client delivery.
- If safe code or preview access cannot be resolved, keep work with the existing authorised operator rather than bypassing that boundary.
Sources and limits
- W3C tabular model: keys, cells and explicit units metadata Checked 2026-10-11.
- Tabular structures and metadata can express keys and units but do not decide a supplier's commercial semantics.
- Current local repair eligibility and price Checked 2026-10-11.
- Current preview-feature eligibility and price Checked 2026-10-11.