The developer left
The person who knew the system is gone and important knowledge left with them.
Software Rescue
Take control of software nobody understands anymore.
If the original developer is gone, documentation is missing, or your team is afraid to change the application, the first step isn't necessarily rebuilding it. It's understanding what you actually have.
Assessments for smaller applications start at $750.
The goal
Leave uncertainty behind.
A Software Rescue Assessment gives you enough technical information to make a rational decision about what happens next.
Understand the application
Identify its architecture, dependencies, integrations, data, and deployment process.
Understand the risk
Find outdated technology, missing knowledge, fragile processes, and important maintenance concerns.
Know what should happen next
Repair it, modernize it, replace part of it, document it, or leave the parts that still work alone.
When Software Rescue Makes Sense
You don't need to know exactly what's wrong yet.
Software Rescue is designed for the situation where the application matters to the business, but the knowledge required to safely maintain it has become incomplete.
You inherited software
An acquisition, agency, contractor, or previous employee left your business responsible for an unfamiliar application.
Documentation is missing
Nobody can confidently explain deployment, infrastructure, integrations, or important architectural decisions.
Changes keep breaking things
The software runs today, but your team avoids touching it because every change feels unpredictable.
The system has grown complicated
Years of features, dependencies, integrations, and workarounds have made the original architecture difficult to recognize.
AI built the prototype
AI helped get the product surprisingly far, but now it needs experienced engineering before the business can safely depend on it.
What I Assess
More than whether the code is "good" or "bad."
A business application is more than its source code. I look at the pieces required to understand, operate, maintain, and eventually hand the system to another engineer.
This is not an automated code-quality score.
The goal is to understand the application in the context of the business that depends on it—not simply generate a list of lint warnings or dependency updates.
Architecture
Frontend, backend, APIs, services, major application boundaries, and how the important pieces communicate.
Dependencies & Runtime
Framework versions, unsupported runtimes, outdated packages, abandoned dependencies, and upgrade concerns.
Data
Databases, storage, schema organization, migrations, and important data dependencies.
Deployment & Infrastructure
How code reaches production, hosting environment, CI/CD, configuration, and operational dependencies.
External Integrations
Payments, email, identity providers, storage, APIs, vendors, analytics, and other outside services.
Authentication & Security
Authentication architecture, authorization, secrets handling, obvious configuration risks, and security-sensitive dependencies.
Testing & Maintainability
Automated testing, code organization, duplicated logic, brittle areas, and how safely the application can be changed.
Documentation
What is documented, what exists only in code, and what another developer would need in order to take over the system.
What You Receive
Something useful even if I never touch the application again.
The assessment is designed to stand on its own. The resulting documentation should help you understand the system and make better decisions whether I perform the next phase or another developer does.
Software Rescue Assessment
Example deliverables
Executive summary written in understandable language
Technology and dependency inventory
High-level architecture overview
Major technical and operational risks
Deployment and environment observations
Important integrations and external dependencies
Documentation and knowledge gaps
Prioritized recommendations
Repair vs. modernization vs. replacement guidance
Suggested next steps
The Right Next Step
Not every old application needs to be rewritten.
Sometimes the safest and least expensive choice is fixing a few important problems. Sometimes modernization makes sense. And sometimes parts of the system really should be replaced.
Repair
Keep the existing architecture and address the problems that are creating immediate operational or maintenance risk.
Modernize
Incrementally upgrade frameworks, architecture, infrastructure, authentication, or interfaces while preserving working business logic.
Replace
Replace the parts of the system where the long-term cost or risk of keeping the existing implementation no longer makes sense.
The assessment is intended to help determine which path is justified before committing significant time or money.
Software Rescue Assessment
$750starting price
Intended as the entry point for smaller applications where the initial scope can be reasonably understood and reviewed.
Larger systems, multiple applications, distributed systems, or unusually complex environments are scoped separately before work begins.
Before work begins
We have an initial conversation about the application and the problem you are trying to solve.
I confirm whether the application fits the standard assessment or needs a larger scope.
You know the price and expected deliverables before I begin the assessment.
You are not obligated to hire me for stabilization, modernization, or ongoing development afterward.
Not sure whether your application qualifies?
Tell me what you're dealing with. You don't need to diagnose the software yourself before contacting me.