Service · IT consulting and audit

Systems and architecture review

We take a fresh look at a system that is already live or still under construction. Typical reasons for ordering a review are a planned acquisition of a company or a stake in it, a wish to replace the software house, and a project that has been “nearly finished” for two years. We did not build the system, so we have no stake in either defending or condemning it.

Independent
we did not build it
Remote
read-only access
Technical debt
priced in zloty
Report
readable by the board too

Included in this service

Judgement rests on stated criteria, never on personal preference: will it scale, can it be looked after without pain, is it safe, and would it survive one person leaving?

Talk the scope through with an engineer

Architecture

Whether design decisions are justified, where the bottlenecks sit and how the shop copes if visitor numbers triple on Black Friday.

Code and tests

Readability, automated test coverage, duplicated logic, the way changes reach production, and whether anything has been written down for newcomers.

Dependencies

Stale or unmaintained packages, components carrying published vulnerabilities, and PHP, Node.js or framework versions that are out of support.

Integrations

Links to the ERP, KSeF, payment gateways and carriers. We check the behaviour when an external API returns an error or goes silent.

Hosting and personal data

The location of servers and customer records, and whether the configuration is in line with GDPR and the processing agreements you have signed.

Single-person risk

Is there anyone besides the original author able to maintain it, or is everything locked in one developer's memory or a repository under a private account?

Report

Risks and recommendations described so that directors without a technical background can use them in decisions.

How we work together

Duration depends on the size of the system and is agreed before we start. Our access to the repository and environments is read-only.

01

Purpose

Acquisition, change of contractor or risk assessment. The purpose tells us which areas deserve the closest look and how detailed the report gets.

02

Access and materials

Code repository, documentation, hosting console, logs. We also talk to the team on Teams, because some knowledge never made it into a file.

03

Assessment

Each criterion is scored, and every finding is noted alongside what it means for the business.

04

Conclusions

A write-up ordering risks from most to least severe with an estimated repair bill, presented in an online meeting.

Messy code is rarely the worst discovery. Reliance on a single developer usually is. Inelegant software can keep working for years. Yet when just one programmer grasps how it works and nothing is written down, the business is effectively held hostage. We score this exposure on its own, apart from code quality.

Questions and answers

Yes, that is one of the usual reasons for a review. You get an honest account of what was handed over, its condition and the price of taking it on. With the report in hand you can bargain on evidence with both the outgoing and the incoming contractor.

Yes. In a transaction we focus on what affects valuation: the technical side of code ownership and open source licences (the legal view stays with your lawyer), technical debt, reliance on key people and running costs after completion. We deliver the report to a deadline agreed with your transaction adviser.

The goal is to describe state and exposure, not to find someone to blame, and no individual gets rated. Teams frequently gain from it, as arguments they have pushed for ages are at last backed by an outsider.

Then the report says exactly that, with justification and costings for both paths: gradual repair or a rewrite. You make the call, ideally on numbers rather than instinct.

Get an independent assessment of your system

Tell us about the software and the reason behind the review. The report you get back lists risks starting with the most serious.

Hours
Mon-Fri 8:00-18:00 CET, reply within one working day
Meetings
Online via Teams or Google Meet

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