Technical assessments
Fixed-fee technical assessments: what one should include and cost
Before you pay anyone to fix a struggling software project, you need to know what is wrong with it. A fixed-fee assessment tells you, for a price you know in advance. Here is what one should cover, deliver and cost.
Updated
Written by Jesse Sanders, CEO & Enterprise PrincipalReviewed by Kevin Schuchard, Director of Engineering
What a technical assessment should include
A fixed-fee technical assessment is an independent review of a software project for a price agreed before it starts. It should cover the code and architecture, tests, release pipeline, security and process, and end with a prioritized list of fixes and an estimate you can take to any team. Briebug's takes about 1 week for $10K.
Many struggling projects are not stuck in the code. They are stuck in the release process, the tests, unclear ownership or the way work is planned. An assessment that only reads the code can miss the real cause, so it should cover all of these areas.
Code and architecture
How the system is built, where it is fragile, which framework and library versions are out of support, and what blocks the next feature.
Tests
Whether automated tests exist, run on every change and cover the business-critical paths, and how often releases break something the tests missed.
Release pipeline (CI/CD)
Every manual step between a merged change and production, whether environments match, and how long a rollback takes.
Security and access
Secrets in the code, dependencies with known vulnerabilities, former staff or vendors who still have access, and who can deploy to production.
Stories and agile process
How work is written and prioritized, and why estimates miss: the reasons a team is busy and the product still does not move.
Ownership of accounts and knowledge
Who owns the repositories, cloud accounts, domains and app-store accounts, and which knowledge lives with only one person or vendor.
Interviews and your top pain points
Time with the engineers who build the system and the people who use it, and a specific recommendation for each of the problems they feel most.
Want to review the project yourself first? Use our software audit checklist.
What you should have at the end
A list of a hundred problems with no order does not help you decide. An assessment is worth its fee when it answers three questions: what is wrong, what to fix first, and what the fix will cost. Expect these five things.
- A written report
- What is wrong, why, and what to do about it, in language your leadership can read.
- A triage report
- What needs to be done, and in what order: the fixes that unblock everything else first.
- A milestone-based estimate
- What the work will cost, broken into milestones you can see progress against.
- A statement of work
- Ready to sign with the firm that did the review, or to take to another one.
- A readout
- A session with your leadership and your engineers to go through the findings and answer questions.
The report should be yours. If it can only be used by the firm that wrote it, you paid for a sales document, not an assessment.
What a fixed-fee assessment should cost
Prices vary by firm and by the size of the system, so compare what each assessment includes, not only the fee. Three things drive the price: how much code and how many systems there are to review, how many people need to be interviewed, and how much access the reviewers get on day one.
What matters most is that the price is fixed before the work starts. With time and materials, the cost of finding out what is wrong is itself unknown, and a review can grow into a project of its own. With a fixed fee, the firm carries that risk.
| Compared on | Fixed fee | Time and materials |
|---|---|---|
| Cost known in advance | Yes | No |
| Who carries overrun risk | The firm | You |
| Scope | Agreed up front | Can grow as it goes |
| Fits when | You need answers before you commit | The work is already well understood |
A worked example: Briebug's Technical Assessment
Briebug's Technical Assessment reviews the code and architecture, the stories and agile process, CI/CD, security and your top 10 pain points. It takes about 1 week for a fixed fee of $10K.
You get a comprehensive written report, a triage report of what to fix in what order, a milestone-based estimate for the work, a statement of work, and a readout with your leadership and your engineers. The report is yours to take to anyone. The fee is not credited if you hire us: it pays for the week of review, whether or not you do.
Most clients then hire us for the rescue itself: how a Briebug rescue works.
- Fixed fee
- $10K
- Duration
- About 1 week
- The report
- Yours to keep
Questions to ask before you buy an assessment
- Is the fee fixed, and what exactly does it include?
- Which areas will you review, and which will you not?
- How long will it take, and what do you need from us to start?
- What will we receive at the end, and is the report ours to keep?
- Does the report include an order of work and an estimate, or only a list of problems?
- Do we have to hire you afterward? Is the fee credited if we do?
Comparing firms for the rescue itself? See how to choose a software project rescue firm.
Common questions
Is a technical assessment the same as a code audit?
A code audit reviews the code. A technical assessment also reviews the architecture, the tests, the release pipeline, security and the way the team works, then says what to fix, in what order, and what the work will cost.
How long should a technical assessment take?
Long enough to read the code and talk to the people involved, short enough that the project does not wait on it. Briebug's takes about 1 week.
Why choose a fixed fee instead of time and materials?
A fixed fee is agreed before the work starts, so you know the cost of finding out what is wrong before you commit to fixing it. The firm carries the risk that the review takes longer than planned.
Do we have to hire the firm that did the assessment?
You should not have to. Make sure the report is yours to keep and specific enough that another team could act on it. Briebug's report is yours to take to anyone.
Is Briebug's assessment fee credited if we hire you?
No. For the $10K fee, our engineers spend the week reviewing your code and your processes to write a comprehensive report that you can take to anyone. The fee pays for that work, whether or not you hire us.
Get the answers before you commit.
Book a short call with a senior engineer. We will scope the assessment and confirm the fixed fee before you commit.