---
title: "Blog // Field Notes, Page 10 · FoundrySoft"
description: "Engineering notes from senior practitioners on generative AI, retrieval systems, and the real work of shipping LLM-powered software to production."
image: "https://foundrysoft.co/api/og?type=page&title=Engineering+intelligent+software&st=Production-grade+software+and+AI+systems+for+teams+who+need+more+than+another+demo."
url: "https://foundrysoft.co/blog/page/10"
---

Field Notes, 184 Articles

# Notes from the foundry

Engineering essays on generative AI, retrieval systems, and what it takes to ship intelligent software to production.

[

![The AI Readiness Checklist Before You Ship to Customers](https://foundrysoft.co/images/blog-cards/ai-readiness-checklist-before-shipping.png)

blueprint

Insights // Production #181

## The AI Readiness Checklist Before You Ship to Customers

A pre-launch checklist for AI features: evals, guardrails, cost controls, monitoring, fallbacks, and the failure modes that embarrass you in production.

2026-04-03

Read Note →

](https://foundrysoft.co/blog/ai-readiness-checklist-before-shipping)[

![How to Scope an AI MVP That Won't Get Thrown Away](https://foundrysoft.co/images/blog-cards/scope-an-ai-mvp-that-wont-be-thrown-away.png)

gradient-mesh

Insights // Product #182

## How to Scope an AI MVP That Won't Get Thrown Away

Most AI MVPs die because they were scoped wrong, not built wrong. A founder's guide to picking the first use case, setting a quality bar, and avoiding the demo trap.

2026-03-27

Read Note →

](https://foundrysoft.co/blog/scope-an-ai-mvp-that-wont-be-thrown-away)[

![Estimating Timeline and Budget for an AI Build](https://foundrysoft.co/images/blog-cards/estimating-timeline-and-budget-for-ai-build.png)

blueprint

Insights // Planning #183

## Estimating Timeline and Budget for an AI Build

Why AI projects blow past estimates, and a framework for scoping timeline and budget that accounts for evals, data work, and the iteration AI actually needs.

2026-03-20

Read Note →

](https://foundrysoft.co/blog/estimating-timeline-and-budget-for-ai-build)[

![Measuring AI Quality: Evals Your Board Will Trust](https://foundrysoft.co/images/blog-cards/measuring-ai-quality-evals-your-board-trusts.png)

split

Insights // Evals #184

## Measuring AI Quality: Evals Your Board Will Trust

How to measure AI feature quality in numbers leadership can act on, covering what to measure, how to avoid vanity metrics, and how to report quality over time.

2026-03-13

Read Note →

](https://foundrysoft.co/blog/measuring-ai-quality-evals-your-board-trusts)

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