§ About
An engineering firm run by engineers, for organisations that treat software as infrastructure.
Retro Betty Ltd is a compact, independent IT practice. We were formed around a single conviction: that most software problems are best solved by small teams of senior engineers who are given the time, the context and the trust to do the work properly.
§ Mission
Build software that continues to work.
Our mission is to build systems that hold up — under load, under scrutiny and over years of operation. We prefer boring technology, clear interfaces and small teams. We would rather ship less and keep it running than ship more and manage the consequences.
§ Vision
Engineering as a professional practice.
We want software engineering to be practised the way other technical professions are practised: with written standards, honest estimates, reviewable work, and a duty of care to the people who depend on the result. Our vision is a firm where every deliverable could be shown to another engineer without embarrassment.
§ Values
Six values that hold up under pressure.
- Rigour
- Candour
- Continuity
- Restraint
- Curiosity
- Craft
These are not slogans. They are the criteria we use when we choose projects, when we hire, and when we decide whether a piece of work is ready to ship.
§ Approach
Small teams. Written decisions. Working software at every review.
Every engagement is led by an engineer accountable end to end. We write things down — decisions, architectures, trade-offs — and publish them where the client can see them. Reviews use running systems, not slides. We do not outsource delivery.
§ Standards
The professional standards we hold ourselves to.
- 01
Written scope, written assumptions, written trade-offs on every engagement.
- 02
Peer review of every change that reaches a client environment.
- 03
Threat modelling and dependency review before code touches production.
- 04
Runbooks and observability treated as deliverables, not afterthoughts.
- 05
Honest post-mortems, published to the client, after any material incident.
- 06
Clear hand-over documentation at the end of every engagement.
§ Expertise
Where our engineers have worked.
Our practitioners have built and operated systems for regulated financial platforms, clinical software, industrial operations, logistics networks and public-interest services. They have shipped in strict-change-control environments and in fast-moving product organisations, and they understand the difference.
§ Quality
Quality is a process, not an inspection.
We treat quality as something that is built into the way work is organised. Continuous integration, automated verification, clear acceptance criteria and small, reversible changes are not extras — they are how the work is done.
§ Client relationships
Long-term by design.
Most of our work comes from clients who have engaged us before, or who were referred by clients who have. We treat every engagement as the beginning of a long relationship, even the ones that turn out to be short. That posture shapes how we scope, how we price, and how we hand work over.
§ Philosophy
Our technology philosophy.
We prefer open standards, mainstream platforms and well-understood patterns. We avoid architectures that only their author can operate. When a new technology genuinely earns its place, we adopt it — but the burden of proof sits with the new thing, not with the incumbent.
Fashion is a poor guide to engineering decisions. Longevity is a better one.