Custom Engineering Scoping Process — Nathan as Gate

Situation

Established formal process for unplanned custom engineering requests from sales: Nathan provides quick effort estimate (days/weeks/months), enabling formal prioritization. Nathan can say no, escalation goes to Peter.

Reasoning

Unplanned custom work (e.g. Veeam ISO) interrupts planned work. Sales pushes with vague contract clauses and large deal pressure. Inserting Nathan as scoping gate creates a forcing function — every request gets sized before commitment. Protects engineering capacity especially with RESF as top priority.

Additional Context

Dave Dickerson pushes for custom work based on vague legacy contract clauses tied to large deals. Ryan raised this as a friction point. RESF transition is top priority making capacity protection critical.

Observed Evidence

Fathom summary describes specific process: Step 1 Nathan scopes (finger in the wind — days, weeks, months). Step 2 estimate enables formal prioritization conversation. Nathan can say no, escalation to Peter. Ryan tasked with briefing Nathan and communicating to sales/Dickerson.

Confidence Breakdown

Reasoning Depth Analysis