Overview

Trade Ledger provides a unified platform for originating and servicing business lending. By connecting data and processes across the lending lifecycle, the platform helps reduce duplication, increase productivity, and lower operational costs for lenders.

Trade Ledger engaged James Chase at a pivotal moment in their product roadmap. Their only backend engineer was preparing to leave the business, while demand for new features, bug fixes, and architectural improvements continued to increase.

The priority was to ensure continuity, protect delivery velocity, and support the wider product and engineering teams during this transition.

The Challenge

The team faced a combination of resourcing risk, technical debt, and delivery pressure. Several client-driven feature requests were in progress, alongside important refactoring work needed to support evolving product demands.

Documentation and developer onboarding materials were outdated, increasing the risk of knowledge loss and slowing down contributions from new engineers. In addition, one of the platform’s most heavily used microservices relied on an overengineered architecture, making even small changes more time-consuming than expected.

Collaboration was further complicated by teams operating across the UK and Sydney, requiring careful coordination to maintain alignment and progress.

The Solution

James Chase augmented Trade Ledger’s engineering team with experienced Java developers, embedding directly into agile sprint cycles and existing delivery practices.

Our engineers worked across feature development, bug fixing, refactoring, and documentation improvements. We contributed production-ready code using Java and Spring Boot, supported API clarity through OpenAPI documentation, and worked within established architectural patterns, including hexagonal architecture where appropriate.

Automated testing practices were strengthened using behaviour-driven development and acceptance testing, helping ensure fixes and enhancements were not inadvertently reintroduced. Regular check-ins and close collaboration with Trade Ledger’s product and engineering leads ensured priorities remained aligned and delivery risks were actively managed.

The Impact

The additional engineering capacity helped Trade Ledger maintain momentum during a period of transition and change.

High-priority bugs were resolved, new features were delivered to support client needs, and documentation quality improved, reducing reliance on individual knowledge holders. Refactoring and test coverage increased confidence in the platform’s stability and made future changes easier to implement.

Most importantly, the team was able to continue delivering in parallel, rather than deferring work due to resourcing constraints.

Interested in similar results?

Email or call at:

steve.rackley@james-chase.com

01273 355141