Case studies / App recovery
Recovering control after a development supplier went into administration.
A startup had recovered its source code. It needed an understandable, documented application and a dependable environment for investor demonstrations.
- Client
- A startup with an externally built app
- Time involved
- About three working days across one week
- Business continuity
- The app stayed available for investor demos
The code was recovered. Control still needed work.
After its development supplier went into administration, the client eventually obtained the application’s repository—the storage and version history for its source code. It contained the application’s components together without documentation, partly completed deployments and three environments feeding into one running app.
The founders needed to continue demonstrating the product to investors while getting the code and infrastructure into a condition another team could take over.
What I changed
I carried out approximately three days of hands-on work over a week, with time between the work while waiting for information and access from the client.
- Organised the code: separated the application into the three repositories it needed, with clear responsibilities.
- Moved work into a background process: added a worker to take processing out of the main application.
- Reworked the infrastructure: rebuilt the infrastructure as code and consolidated the demonstration setup into one staging environment: the version of the app used for testing and demonstrations.
- Prepared for handover: documented the repositories so the next team could understand and continue the work.
The application remained available throughout, allowing the client to keep running investor demonstrations.
Before recovery
- One tangled, undocumented repository
- Partly completed deployments
- Three environments feeding one app
After recovery
- Three documented repositories
- Infrastructure rebuilt in code
- One staging environment for demos
A clearer foundation for the next team.
The client was left with organised, documented repositories, reworked infrastructure and a single staging environment for testing and demos. That made the application easier to understand and a future takeover easier to manage.
Tell me what’s happening.
You don’t need a technical brief. Explain what’s worrying you, what’s stuck or what you’re trying to get underway. We’ll discuss whether I can help and what a sensible next step looks like.