PROJECT RESCUE
PHP project rescue
Inherited a codebase nobody can maintain, or a build that has stopped moving? We take PHP projects over mid-flight — audit first, then a fixed scope to a working release you control.
Does any of this sound familiar?
Projects rarely fail all at once. They stall in recognisable ways, and by the time someone calls us it is usually two or three of these at once.
The agency has gone quiet
Slipping dates, vaguer answers, and an invoice schedule that no longer matches what you can see working.
Nobody can deploy it
The build runs on one laptop, the deployment steps live in someone’s head, and releases have quietly stopped.
Every fix breaks something else
Changes in one place surface as bugs somewhere unrelated, because nothing is isolated and nothing is tested.
No tests, no documentation
There is no way to know whether a change is safe, so the team stops changing anything that matters.
The developer who knew it has left
One person held the whole model in their head. They have gone, and the handover was a repository link.
It works on staging and nowhere else
Environments have drifted apart, configuration is undocumented, and production behaves like a different application.
The first two weeks
Before anyone writes a line of new code, we find out what you actually have.
01
Get it running
We stand the application up from the repository in a clean environment. If that is not possible, that finding alone tells you a great deal.
02
Inventory
PHP version, dependencies, integrations, hosting, domains, credentials, third-party accounts — written down, including everything nobody can find.
03
Read where the money is
Authentication, payments, data handling and the integrations that carry real money or real personal data get read line by line first.
04
Report back
What is salvageable, what has to be rebuilt, what it costs, and what we would do first. In writing, in plain language.
What you have at the end of it
The audit is useful on its own. You own everything it produces, and you are free to take it elsewhere.
A written assessment
The state of the codebase in language a non-developer can take to a board, with the technical detail attached for whoever needs it.
A ranked risk list
Security holes, data-protection exposure, single points of failure and licensing problems, ordered by what would hurt most.
A fixed-scope plan
A defined route to a deployable release: what gets fixed, in what order, at what cost, with the assumptions written down.
Everything we found
Repositories, environments, access map and documentation handed to you, whether or not you carry on with us.
Repair or rebuild?
This is the question the audit exists to answer, and the honest answer is not always the one that bills the most. We will tell you which of the three you are looking at, and why.
Repair, when the model still fits
The application still matches how the business works and the problems are structural — no tests, tangled dependencies, an old runtime. That is fixable, and usually for far less than a rebuild.
Rebuild, when it does not
The business changed and the software did not. Every new requirement fights the original design. Patching that is spending money to stay where you are.
Often both, in that order
The common answer is to stabilise what exists so it stops costing you weekends, then replace it in pieces while it keeps running.
ORGANISATIONS WHOSE PHP WE LOOK AFTER
Project rescue questions
We are still under contract with the current supplier. Can you still look?
Yes. An independent audit of the code and the delivery position is often exactly what you need before that conversation, and it is a normal thing for us to be asked to do.
How quickly can you start?
The first call is within a day or two. The audit itself normally starts within a week or two, depending on how quickly we can be given access to the code and the environments.
What access do you need?
The repository, any hosting and environment access, and a list of the third-party services the application talks to. If some of that is missing, finding out what is missing is part of the audit.
Will you tell us the project is fine if it is?
Yes, and it happens. Sometimes the code is sound and the problem is scope, sequencing or communication. We would rather say that than sell an upgrade you do not need.
What if the original developers were not using PHP best practice at all?
Common, and not a blocker. We work with what is there: stabilise it, put tests around the parts that matter, and refactor from the inside rather than starting again on principle.
Do we have to keep working with you afterwards?
No. The audit output is yours, including the plan. Plenty of clients take it to their own team, and that is a legitimate outcome.
Contact us!
Do you have a question about our PHP development services?
Looking for a bespoke solution for your website?
We’re here to help!
What happens next
We reply within one working day. The first call is 30 minutes, with a developer on it, and there is no charge for it.
Phone:
0203 507 1728