The system nobody wants to touch, made supportable.
A staged modernization program: contain the risk, document reality, modernise what pays back, hand over something your team can run. No big-bang rewrite — those fail on the same schedule they were sold on.
Apply for the program Start with the $997 assessmentMilestone-invoiced. Scope and price are agreed in writing before the first invoice.
The four stages
Each stage leaves you better off even if the next one never happens. That is deliberate.
1. Contain — 3-4 weeks
Version control and build automation where missing, environments separated, backups and restore proven, monitoring added so failures are seen before customers report them.
2. Document — 2-3 weeks
Architecture written down, data flows mapped, undocumented behaviour captured, and the bus factor raised above one.
3. Modernise — 6-12 weeks
Runtime and dependency currency, tests on the paths that matter, highest-risk components refactored or wrapped behind an interface.
4. Hand over — 2 weeks
Runbooks, release process, onboarding guide for a new engineer, and a maintenance plan that survives without us.
Principles we work to
- No big-bang rewrite. Strangle, wrap or replace component by component.
- Reversibility first. Every stage stands on its own.
- Behaviour is the specification. Where documentation and the running system disagree, the system wins until a human decides otherwise.
- Tests before changes on any path touching money, customer data or a legal obligation.
- Knowledge transfer is a deliverable, not a courtesy at the end.
Milestones
- Kickoff — scope agreed, access granted (25%)
- Contain complete — build, environments, backup restore and monitoring verified (25%)
- Modernise complete — agreed component work delivered and tested (35%)
- Handover accepted — documentation and runbooks accepted by your team (15%)
Questions we get
Why does the assessment come first?
We do not scope a modernization without a scored baseline. The $997 Software Architecture & Modernization Assessment establishes system size, runtime currency and how much of stage 1 already exists — and its fee is credited against this program if you start within 14 days.
Will you tell us to rewrite?
Rarely, and never without a number attached. Most systems need containment and selective replacement.
What do you need from us?
Access to source, environments and whoever keeps it running; a decision-maker for behaviour questions; acceptance of a change freeze during Contain where required; and somewhere for the knowledge to land afterwards.
Why is there no buy button?
Programs at this level are scoped in writing and invoiced by milestone. A checkout would be pretending the scope is known before anyone has looked.
Get the baseline, then decide
The assessment is $997 and credits against the program. It is the cheapest way to find out how big this really is.
Book the assessment Apply for the program