DDEL · Project Check-in

DFD Delivery Matrix: Project Check-in

Report date: Tuesday 28 April 2026
Client: Daylesford (DFD)
PM: Rebecca Ebdon-Roper  ·  Tech Lead: Ian Rushton
Float project: Delivery Matrix (DFD-DM, 1 Apr – 31 Aug 2026, 516 hr budget)
Jira: DDEL board 695  ·  Brief: 2026 New Delivery Solution
🟡 Amber
On track on delivery — watch on governance. Commercial sign-off confirmed. Amber driven by Toggl not yet wired to Jira, meaning hours quoted here come from Jira timeSpent rather than the billing source.
What's gone well since the previous report

The Epic 1 milestone landed when Ian said it would. DDEL-1 is Done, and DDEL-21 through DDEL-26 (the six investigation/blueprint tickets under Epics 1 and 2) all closed inside the last 7 days.

Build work has now actually started. DDEL-28 ("Set up the new delivery module and create a shared delivery validation service") and DDEL-41 ("Develo_DeliverySchedule to use Core Validation service check") are both In Progress with Yaroslav, and DDEL-27 ("Add logging to legacy delivery write paths…") is in Code Review with Ian. Between the baseline a week ago and today the project has gone from scoping Epic 2 to actively coding inside it — a good week.

Burn discipline is good. Across all DDEL issues the team has logged ~103.5 hours against ~136 hours of original estimate and a Float budget of 516 hours. At day 28 of a 153-day window we are ~18% through the calendar and ~20% through the budget — net under-spend and consistent with Ian's earlier note that the project is "on track with the low end of the estimate so far."

Documentation is keeping pace with code. The Confluence page "DDEL - Delivery Matrix AI Prompt" is being maintained (Ian updated it on 25 April), and the project brief was last edited 22 April, suggesting MoSCoW and scope are still being actively refined.

Issues, risks and watchpoints
Toggl is still not connected to the DDEL Jira board
Rebecca asked Mike on 27 March in #client-daylesford to wire this up; the Toggl project lookup today returns no project named "Delivery Matrix" or similar. Hours quoted in any weekly report (including this one) come from Jira timeSpent, not the source we bill from. If we want the next check-in to compare like-for-like with the standard Weekly Delivery Report, this needs fixing this week.
Owner: Mike / Rebecca
✅ Commercial sign-off confirmed
Confirmed with Steve. The procurement conversation has resolved and Float allocation can continue beyond May without ambiguity.
Bus-factor on Epics 3–10
All eight build epics (DDEL-3 through DDEL-10) are To Do and unassigned; 25 of the 26 To Do issues across the project carry no owner. Active development is concentrated on two people — Ian and Yaroslav. If Epic 3 ("Build new delivery subsystem…") is going to start in May we need named owners and a Float allocation re-balance now.
Owner: Sarah (scheduling) / Ian
Per-ticket time variance is starting to appear
Net we are under budget, but several Done items overran:
  • DDEL-12 — 11.9 hrs logged vs 6.0 hrs estimated (+5.9 hrs, 98% over)
  • DDEL-11 — 6.8 hrs vs 4.0 hrs (+2.8 hrs, 70% over)
  • DDEL-13 — 5.0 hrs vs 3.0 hrs (+2.0 hrs, 67% over)
  • DDEL-26, DDEL-22 — each ~30 mins over

This is a discovery-phase pattern and not yet a trend, but the contingency line (60–90 hrs for "unknowns specific to Daylesford's unique code-base") should be consciously drawn on rather than silently absorbed.
Long-stagnant epics
DDEL-5 through DDEL-10 (Checkout UX, Admin tools, Assisted shop, C&C, ERP, QA/UAT) were all last touched on 2 April. If Epic 2's blueprint introduces dependencies into them — particularly assisted-shop interactions with the new validation service — those need to be reflected back into the tickets before they're reached, not after.
Numbers at a glance
MetricValueNotes
Float budget516 hrsDFD-DM, 1 Apr – 31 Aug, status active
Calendar elapsed28 / 153 days (≈18%)June launch + 2 mo buffer
Jira timeSpent to date103.5 hrs (≈20%)Toggl not yet wired up
Original estimates totalled136 hrsAcross 40 issues
Remaining estimate48.1 hrsOn items not yet Done
Issues by status11 Done · 2 Code Review · 2 In Progress · 26 To Do
Epics by status1 Done · 9 To DoDDEL-2 substantively under way despite "To Do"
Updated this last 7 days25 issuesHealthy throughput
Active contributorsIan Rushton, Yaroslav YJamie and Shahbaz on other clients
Compared with the previous baseline (w/c 20 April)
Commitment in last updateStatus today
Epic 1 closed by Monday 20 April✅ Done — DDEL-1 closed on plan
Epic 2 fully scoped and in Jira by end of week✅ Done — DDEL-22, -23, -24, -25, -26 all Done
Build work to begin✅ Started — DDEL-28, -41 In Progress; -27 in Code Review
Tracking to low end of estimate✅ Holding — 103.5 hr spent vs 136 hr estimated
Jamie & Shahbaz off project, Ian + Yaro only✅ Confirmed
Toggl/Jira link to be set up❌ Still not done
Commercial sign-off / procurement✅ Confirmed with Steve
Recommended actions before next check-in
1.Connect the DDEL Jira board to the Toggl "Daylesford Delivery Matrix" project so the next report can quote billing-grade hours.
2.Assign owners to DDEL-3 (Epic) and at minimum DDEL-29, DDEL-30, DDEL-31 so the build pipeline is visibly populated when Epic 2 closes.
3.Decide explicitly whether the 5.9-hr DDEL-12 overrun comes out of the 60–90 hr contingency line, and log that decision against the issue.
4.Re-validate Epics 5–10 against the Epic 2 blueprint output before they're picked up — particularly the assisted-shop and Click & Collect interactions called out as MUSTs in the brief.
Sources