Technical Due Diligence
How MasterFabric assesses existing systems, tech stacks, and codebases before integration or migration.
Technical Due Diligence
Technical due diligence is the process of evaluating an existing system — its architecture, codebase, infrastructure, and risks — before we integrate with it, migrate it, or take over maintenance. This page explains what we look for and how we report findings.
When we do this
Due diligence happens during pre-sales (to scope accurately), project kickoff (to understand dependencies), or before acquisition/handover (to assess technical debt and risks).
What We Assess
1. Codebase Quality
- Structure: Is the code modular? Are there clear boundaries between layers?
- Readability: Can a new developer understand it? Are there docs or tests?
- Tech debt: How much legacy code? Are there known bugs or hacks?
- Dependencies: Are libraries up to date? Are there security vulnerabilities?
2. Architecture & Infrastructure
- Scalability: Can it handle 10x traffic? What breaks first?
- Resilience: Single points of failure? Disaster recovery plan?
- Deployment: CI/CD pipelines? Manual steps? Rollback process?
- Monitoring: Logs, metrics, alerts? How do you know if something is broken?
3. Data & Security
- Database schema: Normalized? Indexed? Migration history?
- Security posture: Auth, encryption, secrets management, compliance (GDPR, HIPAA, etc.).
- Backups: How often? Tested restores?
- Performance: Slow queries? Caching strategy?
4. Team & Documentation
- Knowledge concentration: Is the knowledge in one person's head or documented?
- Onboarding: How long for a new dev to be productive?
- Docs: Architecture diagrams, API specs, runbooks, ADRs?
Delivery Format
We produce a due diligence report with:
| Section | Content |
|---|---|
| Executive summary | High-level findings and recommendations (1-2 pages). |
| Risk register | Issues ranked by severity (critical, high, medium, low) with mitigation plans. |
| Architecture review | Diagrams, tech stack analysis, scalability/security notes. |
| Code quality metrics | Test coverage, linting, complexity scores, dependency audit. |
| Recommendations | Short-term fixes, long-term improvements, cost/timeline estimates. |
Confidentiality
All due diligence is covered by NDA. Findings are shared only with authorized stakeholders.
When Findings Are Good
Sometimes we find well-structured code, strong tests, and clear documentation. That's great! We highlight what works, suggest small optimizations, and move forward confidently.
When Findings Are Bad
If the codebase is unmaintainable, we present options:
- Refactor incrementally — Fix the worst parts first, deliver value while improving.
- Rewrite — Clean slate; higher cost, longer timeline, but lower long-term risk.
- Hybrid — Keep the stable core, rewrite the problematic modules.
We never surprise clients. We present trade-offs, costs, and timelines transparently.