Polaris Ebook: The IT Project Quality Standard
Polaris. 57 best practices for IT system development and transformation
Like the North Star that guided sailors for centuries, Polaris provides a fixed reference point for navigating IT project decisions — especially when scope shifts, assumptions evolve, and pressure mounts.
It’s a practical quality standard built on 10+ years of project experience, designed to help teams and leaders assess quality and make better delivery decisions across new initiatives and legacy modernisation.
Launching January 2026. Join the waiting list to be first to get it.
Contents of the ebook
From auditing projects to building quality culture — a practical guide built on 10+ years of delivery experience.
What Polaris is and when to apply it
You’ll understand Polaris as both a quality standard and a way of thinking about IT projects. You’ll learn when it makes the most sense to use it — when launching new initiatives, during product development, and when modernising systems that need to keep running alongside the changes.
The 57 practices that make up the standard
You’ll get a structured map of 57 practices across three areas: product and process, technology and development, documentation and testing. Each area addresses a different type of risk — business, technical and operational.
How to run a Polaris audit, step by step
You’ll learn how to use Polaris in practice to assess a project: how to prepare for an audit, how to run a workshop with the team, and how to gather insights that drive decisions — not just document the current state.
Polaris areas and their owners
You’ll see how to clarify responsibility in IT projects: who owns each quality area and how to avoid situations where decisions have no clear owner.
Case studies from Inwedo projects
You’ll see real examples of improvements we’ve implemented in our projects — with the context, the decisions behind them, and the impact they had on day-to-day team work and client collaboration.
The role of QA and testing standards
You’ll learn how QA and testing work in Polaris: as a way of building quality throughout the project lifecycle, not just as a final checkpoint.
Definition of Ready and Definition of Done in practice
You’ll see how to use DoR and DoD as tools that bring structure to collaboration — setting clear expectations, reducing misunderstandings, and stabilising team rhythm.
Benefits and common pitfalls when implementing standards
You’ll learn about the benefits we’ve observed from working with a quality standard, and the most common pitfalls that come up during implementation — with guidance on how to avoid them before they affect delivery pace and quality.
Results from working with Polaris
of sprints delivered on plan (vs. 60% before Polaris)
test coverage achieved in audited projects
lower maintenance costs through reduced technical debt
What you’ll gain from this book
A guiding framework for IT project decisions
In fast-moving IT projects, it’s easy to lose sight of direction and alignment. Polaris was created as a guiding framework that helps you make consistent decisions and maintain a shared approach to quality — even when scope and assumptions evolve during delivery.
This is for everyone who wants confidence that IT projects are delivered predictably, safely, and according to clear quality standards. For business and technology leaders, engineers, QA professionals and project managers who want to deliberately build a quality culture — not through bureaucracy, but through clear principles, accountability and transparency.
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A structured way to assess IT project quality
Without diving into operational details or relying solely on gut feeling or team declarations.
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A solid foundation for partnership with your IT provider
Clear quality criteria, responsibilities and expectations — from project kick-off through ongoing development.
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Better decisions on development, risk and priorities
Based on a complete picture of the project, not isolated signals or the pressure of current problems.
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Clear quality guardrails that support team autonomy
Teams retain freedom to act, but work against a shared, understood standard.
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One standard that works across different project types
Whether you’re launching new initiatives, evolving products, or modernising legacy systems.
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A shared language for quality conversations across the organization
Between technical teams, leadership and business stakeholders — without misunderstandings or assumptions going unchecked.
Why Polaris — and why we’re sharing it
For centuries, sailors navigated by the North Star — a constant point in the sky that kept them on course.
In IT projects, we need the same: a fixed reference point that guides decisions even when everything around you is changing. That’s why we created Polaris.
It emerged from over 10 years of work on end-to-end IT projects and team extension engagements. In 2022, we formalised it as part of an internal project audit combined with ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certification. This made Polaris a coherent, practical tool that supports everyday project decisions — not a collection of abstract principles.
We’re sharing Polaris because we believe in a culture of openness and in exchanging knowledge and experience. Over the years, it’s helped us structure our work, learn from mistakes and develop shared quality standards.
Now we’re putting it out there — so other teams can learn from it, draw inspiration, or simply compare their own approach to quality and collaboration.
About the author
Engineer and humanist leader with over 20 years of experience in the IT industry.
CEO of Inwedo, where he works with teams and business stakeholders on quality, security, and decision-making in IT projects — from new products to legacy system modernisation.
Author of books, as well as a blog and podcast focused on leadership, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies. In this ebook, he presents the Polaris quality standard from the perspective of a practitioner and organisational leader, showing how it supports project decisions, predictability, and accountability in day-to-day delivery.
Get a clear reference point for IT project quality
Join the waiting list to receive the Polaris ebook when it launches in January 2026.
FAQ
Not at all. Polaris scales — it works for new product launches, ongoing development, and legacy modernisation. The 57 practices cover fundamentals that apply whether you’re a 5-person team or a 50-person department. What changes is depth, not applicability.
Practical. You’ll get step-by-step guidance on running audits, case studies from real Inwedo projects (including what didn’t work), templates, and examples you can adapt immediately. This isn’t a manifesto — it’s a playbook built from 10+ years of delivery experience.
Here’s what to expect:
– New subscribers: You’ll get a confirmation email first — click the link to verify your address, then we’ll send a welcome message
– Already subscribed? You’ll receive the welcome message right away
In January, you’ll receive Polaris directly to your inbox.
No. Polaris isn’t a methodology you adopt wholesale. It’s a quality reference you can apply selectively, depending on your context.
You can think of it as a diagnostic and decision-support tool: it helps you spot gaps, understand risks, and prioritise improvements — without prescribing how teams should work day to day.
Teams keep their autonomy. Polaris simply provides a shared, practical definition of what “quality” means across projects.