Engagement models
Five ways to work with Tankar, compared on the things that decide the choice: what each is best for, how it is priced, how change is handled and who carries which risk.
Side by side
Every model runs through the same six-stage process with a named project manager, a weekly demo and your code in your repository from week one. The table shows where they differ; each model's section below has the detail.
| Model | Fixed price | Time and materials | Dedicated team | Product partnership | Retainer and support |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | A defined scope with a clear end state: an MVP, a website, a well-specified module or an integration. | Evolving products, research-heavy work such as AI features, and engagements where the backlog is set sprint by sprint. | Ongoing product development where you want engineers who know the codebase and stay on it, working as an extension of your own team. | Founders and businesses that want a product built and run with product discipline: roadmap, releases, observability and support, the same way Tankar runs its own products. | Live products that need maintenance, monitoring, small improvements and a response commitment after launch. |
| Pricing basis | One agreed price for the agreed scope. | Agreed rates per role, billed for time spent. | A fee per team member, agreed in advance, so the cost is predictable. | – | A fixed fee for an agreed number of hours or an agreed service level, with larger changes estimated separately. |
| Risk sharing | Tankar carries the delivery risk for the agreed scope. The client carries the risk of scope that changes after the estimate. | The client controls the budget by controlling the backlog and can pause or stop at a sprint boundary. Tankar is accountable for the quality and pace of the work delivered. | The client owns product direction and priorities. Tankar owns staffing, continuity and quality of the people supplied. | – | Tankar commits to the response and resolution targets in the SLA. |
Fixed price
Discuss a fixed price engagement- How it works
- Discovery produces a scope document and a written estimate within 48 hours of the scoped call. The price and timeline are agreed before the build starts. Work runs in the six-stage process with a weekly demo and a shared project board.
- Change handling
- Anything outside the scope document is written up as a change request with its own estimate and timeline. Nothing is added silently and nothing is billed without agreement.
- What you get
- A scope document and a written estimate before any build work
- A named project manager
- A weekly demo and a shared project board
- Source code in your repository from week one
- Full IP assignment at final payment
- A release checklist, runbook and handover session at launch
- Not recommended when
- The requirements are still being discovered, or the product is expected to change every sprint. A fixed price then turns into a stream of change requests, and time and materials is cheaper and calmer.
Time and materials
Discuss a time and materials engagement- How it works
- The team is staffed to the work and billed for the hours or days spent. The backlog is prioritised together at the start of each sprint, the shared project board shows what is in progress, and the weekly demo shows what was finished.
- Change handling
- Change is the normal case: reprioritise the backlog at any sprint boundary. There is no change-request process because the scope is not fixed.
- What you get
- A named project manager and a team sized to the backlog
- Sprint planning with you, a weekly demo and a shared project board
- Source code in your repository from week one
- Full IP assignment at final payment
- Not recommended when
- The scope is fixed and the budget must be known up front, for example a tender or a board-approved capital project. Use fixed price there.
Dedicated team
Discuss a dedicated team engagement- How it works
- You get a pod, a project manager, a designer, engineers and a QA engineer, or a subset of those roles, reserved for your product. The team works your backlog, joins your rituals and uses your tools, with a named project manager on the Tankar side and escalation to a director within 24 hours.
- Change handling
- You direct the work. Team composition can be changed with notice; the shape of the team is reviewed at agreed intervals.
- What you get
- Named engineers who stay on your product
- A named project manager and a director escalation path
- Your repository, your tools, your rituals
- A monthly report of work completed and team changes
- Not recommended when
- The work is a single short project with a clear end. A dedicated team has a minimum term and is designed for continuity, not a six-week build.
Product partnership
Discuss a product partnership engagement- How it works
- Tankar acts as the product engineering team from discovery through launch and into the run stage. The roadmap is managed together, releases follow a release checklist, and after launch the product is monitored and supported under an agreed plan.
- Change handling
- The roadmap is reviewed at agreed intervals and changes are planned into releases rather than handled as one-off change requests.
- What you get
- Discovery, design, build, test, launch and run under one team
- A roadmap reviewed with you, with releases planned against it
- Release management, monitoring and an incident process after launch
- Source code in your repository from week one and full IP assignment at final payment
- Product decisions informed by running our own SaaS products
- Not recommended when
- You already have an in-house product and engineering leadership and only need capacity. A dedicated team fits that better.
Retainer and support
Discuss a retainer and support engagement- How it works
- A retainer reserves capacity for maintenance and small changes, and an SLA sets response and resolution targets for incidents. Work is logged on the shared board and summarised in a monthly report.
- Change handling
- Small changes are drawn from the retained hours. Anything larger gets a written estimate and is scheduled as a project.
- What you get
- Monitoring and an incident process
- Reserved hours each month for fixes and small improvements
- Security patching and dependency updates
- A monthly report of what was done and what is recommended next
- Not recommended when
- You need a large feature or a rebuild. A retainer is sized for maintenance; a project needs its own estimate and team.
Contracting basics
What a procurement team asks before the first invoice. Data-protection terms for each market (GDPR, UK GDPR, the DPDP Act and the PDPL) and the IP and NDA policy are on the security page.
- Contracting entity
- Tankar Solutions Private Limited
- CIN
- U62010GJ2023PTC146514
- Registered in
- Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
- Data protection and IP
- Security and data protection
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