Taking Over an IT Project From Another Vendor: How We Rescue Unfinished Apps

The app has been "90% done" for a year, the vendor stopped answering the phone, and you keep paying for hosting something that earns nothing. Sound familiar? Taking over an IT project from another vendor is one of the most common situations business owners bring to us. The good news: most of these projects can be rescued. The bad news: the longer you wait, the less there is left to rescue. Here is a step-by-step plan.

Step 1: secure everything before you look for help

Before you think about a new vendor, make sure you actually hold what you have already paid for. The minimum list:

• Source code - access to the repository (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket) on an account owned by your company, not by the programmer.
• Domain - check who it is registered to. Surprisingly often it turns out to be the vendor.
• Hosting and servers - panel logins, invoices and clarity about who actually pays for it.
• Database - a fresh backup on your own drive, not just "somewhere on the server".
• External accounts - payment gateway, mailboxes, API keys, cloud services.
• Contract and correspondence - everything you have in writing, gathered in one folder.

If the vendor still responds, ask for the full set of credentials now, before the relationship breaks down completely. Which credentials matter most is covered in our post on web application security.

Step 2: a code audit, or diagnosis before treatment

Do not guess what state the project is in - check it. A code audit is a review of the inherited project by an experienced engineer. What we examine:

• whether the code in the repository really is the version running on the server,
• architecture and quality: what is solid and what was written "in a hurry",
• security: passwords, access, outdated libraries,
• the real percentage of completion - a declared "90%" can mean 40%,
• the cost of finishing, in several variants.

Such an audit usually takes from a few days to two weeks and costs from PLN 3,000. You get a report written in plain language, not in programmer speak: what works, what is about to break and what each way out will cost.

Three verdicts: finish, replace a part, rewrite

After the audit, one of three decisions is made:

• Finish it - the foundation is decent; the last features and some cleanup are missing. The cheapest path, often within a budget from PLN 10,000.
• Replace a part - the core stays, but for example the payment module or the admin panel gets rebuilt.
• Rewrite from scratch - when fixing would cost more than building anew. It hurts, but sometimes it is the most honest calculation, especially if the project is meant to keep growing.

A fair vendor will show you the numbers for each variant instead of announcing at the door that "everything must go".

The legal side of an IT project takeover: who owns the code

Before a new team touches the code, check what your contract with the previous vendor says. There are two possible models: a transfer of copyright to your company or a license to use the code. Both can be fair, but they differ in what you are allowed to do next: a license may, for example, limit modifications or handing the code to another team. If the contract says nothing about copyright, or there never was one, talk to a lawyer before spending serious money. What to require in the next contract is covered in our post on the software development contract.

Red flags when choosing the next vendor

You do not want to go through this twice. Watch out for:

• an instant quote given without looking at the code - a reliable assessment requires an audit,
• declaring that "everything must be thrown away" before anyone has read the code,
• no contract covering code rights and the handover of access,
• a one-person team with no backup - that is exactly how your current problem started,
• no takeover procedure: repository, environments, documentation, credentials.

How to compare candidates is covered in software house or freelancer.

Where to start rescuing your project

Secure the access, gather the documents and order an audit - it is the cheapest way to make decisions based on facts rather than hope. A good first step is a technical consultation where we review the situation and propose a plan. Want to know what finishing your project would cost? Describe it in our quote calculator - you will see an approximate price range on the spot, get a first reply within 24h, and receive a binding quote after a short call and a look at the code.