When to Call a Software Rescue Consultant (and When Not To)

Call a software rescue consultant when software your business depends on keeps breaking, or never launched, and you can't get a plain answer about why. Don't wait for a full crisis. An outside review is cheapest and most useful before you spend another large sum on the same team.

A software rescue consultant is an independent expert you bring in to look at software that isn't working. They tell you what is wrong, whether it can be fixed, and what that would take. You can also be too early. Here is how to tell.

What are the signs it's time to call?

You don't need all of these. Two or three is enough to make a call worth it.

• The same problems keep coming back after being "fixed."
• Deadlines move, and the reasons you are given don't change or don't make sense to you.
• You ask a simple question and get an answer full of technical words.
• Fixing one thing seems to break another.
• Only one person understands how it works, or the person who built it is gone.
• Customers or investors have started to notice.
• You have spent more than you planned and can't say what you got for it.

The one that matters most is the third. If the people building your software can't explain the situation in words you understand, you can't make a good decision. A second opinion fixes that.

When is it too early?

It is too early if you have a clear plan, work you can see and use, and answers you understand. A late project is not a failed project. Many projects slip and still land well.

If you are only nervous, ask your current team for a short written summary. It should cover what is done, what is left, and what could go wrong. If they give you one in plain words, you may not need me. If you don't get one, that is a good reason to call.

Can it be too late?

Almost never for the review itself. A review can start with software that has been broken for years, or with a project that stalled long ago.

What can be too late is the money and the timing. Spending more is not always wise. Sometimes the honest advice is to stop, scale back, or start over on part of it. I can't tell you which one applies without seeing it.

What does waiting cost?

I can't tell you what waiting costs your company. That depends on what the software does for your business.

I can show you how big the problem is across the country. The Consortium for Information & Software Quality (CISQ) is a group that develops standards for measuring software quality. Its 2022 report estimated that the cost of poor software quality in the US had grown to $2.41 trillion.^[1] That is a national estimate, not your bill.

The same report put the accumulated cost of technical debt at about $1.52 trillion.^[1] Technical debt is the cost of reworking software that was built in a rushed or poor way. Like other debt, it grows the longer it sits.

What should a first conversation answer?

A good first conversation should leave you with plain answers to these questions:

1. What is actually wrong, in words you understand?
2. Is it worth repairing, or does it need rebuilding? Why?
3. Roughly what would the next step cost, and how long would it take? Or an honest "I can't say yet, and here is what I'd need to see."
4. What should you do first, and what should you stop doing?
5. Do you need me at all?

That last question matters. Sometimes the answer is no.

What should you gather before you call?

You don't need to prepare much. These help:

• Who built the software, and whether you can still reach them.
• Whether you own the code and can get into the accounts where it runs.
• What you have paid so far, and any contract or written plan.
• A short list of what goes wrong, and what it costs you when it does.

If you don't have some of these, call anyway. Finding out what you have is part of the work.

Who is this for?

I work with founders and CEOs of small companies, from one to ten people, who own the decision themselves. The software behind their business is built on Microsoft's .NET, Angular, Azure and SQL Server. These are the tools many business applications are made with. It either never launched or keeps breaking.

I am not the right fit if you run a large company with its own engineering department. I am also not the right fit if you want to hire developers by the hour.

Book a free 15-minute call

If any of the signs above sound familiar, book a free 15-minute call. Tell me what is happening. I will tell you honestly whether I can help, or what I would do next if I were in your place.