Own Your System (Pre-Order)

"Own Your System" tackles a critical challenge for agile entrepreneurs: how to maintain control when essential development is outsourced to a disconnected team of contractors (or more recently – LLMs, Agents, or non-technical contributors using code co-pilots.) This is especially risky when working with overseas teams where social bonds are frail and legal recourse is limited. The author and multiple-time CTO argues that while strategic compartmentalization is necessary, it can easily devolve into a complex and fragmented system. This fragmentation might be a necessary evil for modern systems built this way – it is not necessarily bad, as long as the interfaces are understood and components have tight CI/CD at all layers.

Positioned as a practical checklist for astute non-technical CEOs and technical managers alike, the book provides the rationale behind each key step to true ownership. It teaches you not just to manage contractors, but to architect the entire system of work – where you and your workforce both win. You'll learn how to define and control the interfaces between every component and ensure each outsourced piece is built for seamless integration. The result is a cohesive, efficient, and resilient business machine that you truly own and control from the top down. The orthogonal but equally beneficial result is a set of workers and contractors who are productive, happy, and become long-term partners.