Read it
Code, database and hosting reviewed properly. This is genuine work and it is the only way to give you an honest assessment.
Custom Software · Delhi NCR & remote
The developer who built it has stopped answering.
It is the most common software conversation I have. A system that runs the business, written by somebody who has moved on, with no documentation and a PHP version that stopped receiving security patches two years ago.
Short answer
Software maintenance keeps an existing custom system working: fixing defects, applying security patches, upgrading language and framework versions, making small enhancements, and documenting a system so it is no longer dependent on one person’s memory.
Systems you inherited
Security patching
Version upgrades
Documented as we go
Free system review
Get a free quote
Four details. A real reply the same day, from me.
System nobody can maintain?
Get a Free Quote
WhatsApp
01 The premise
Software that runs without an owner.
A great many Indian businesses depend on software nobody currently maintains. It was built five or eight years ago, it works, and the person who wrote it is unreachable. There is no documentation. Nobody is confident enough to change anything, so nothing is changed, including the things that should be for security reasons.
That state is stable right up until it is not. An unsupported PHP version stops receiving security patches, a hosting provider forces an upgrade, a browser change breaks something, or a business requirement finally cannot be worked around. At that point the situation is urgent and the options are worse than they would have been a year earlier.
Taking over software like this is unglamorous and genuinely useful work. The first step is always reading it and documenting what is there, because you cannot maintain what nobody understands. Frequently the outcome is reassuring: the code is reasonable, the fixes are smaller than feared, and the system has years left in it.
02 Included
What maintenance actually covers.
Stated specifically, because the word covers a lot of vagueness in this industry.
Included
- Defect fixing. Things that were meant to work and do not, prioritised by how much they hurt.
- Security patching. Language, framework and library updates, including the awkward major-version ones.
- Version upgrades. PHP 5 or 7 to 8, framework upgrades. Usually smaller than feared and increasingly urgent.
- Small enhancements. A field added, a report changed, a rule adjusted. Included at reasonable volume.
- Documentation. Written as work proceeds, so the system stops depending on any individual’s memory.
- Backups verified. Taken and actually restored periodically. An untested backup is a hope.
- Availability. Someone to call when something breaks, which is frequently the entire reason for the arrangement.
03 Takeover
Taking over a system.
The first two steps happen before any commitment on either side.
Report honestly
What state it is in, what is urgent, what can wait, and whether maintaining it is the right decision at all.
Fix what is urgent
Security exposure and anything actively broken, first. Everything else can be scheduled.
Document as we go
Written down while it is being understood, rather than as a separate project nobody funds.
Then improve
Enhancements and upgrades on a schedule, once the system is stable and understood.
Free system review
What state is your system actually in?
Give me access to the code and the database. You will get an honest assessment of what condition it is in, what is urgent, and whether maintaining it beats replacing it.
- An honest read, including "replace this"
- You keep the assessment either way
- Documentation written as work proceeds
- Same-day reply, all 7 days
Free review
Get a free quote
Four details, and a real reply today.
04 Straight talk
Maintain, or replace.
The honest assessment. Replacement is sometimes right and it is recommended less often than it is sold.
Worth maintaining
- The code is comprehensible. Even if dated. Readable code with a sane database has years left in it.
- It does the job. Business logic that works and is understood is valuable, regardless of its age.
- The database is sound. Data structure is the expensive part. Sound data survives an ugly interface.
- Only the version is old. A PHP upgrade is a fortnight of work, not a rebuild.
Worth replacing
- Nobody can read it. If understanding it costs more than rewriting it, that is the answer.
- The data model is wrong. Structural data problems poison everything built on top and cannot be patched around.
- It cannot be secured. Some old systems cannot be made safe without a rewrite. That is a real finding.
- The business has changed. If it models a business you no longer are, maintenance is preserving the wrong thing.
— Custom Software
Related services.
These sit next to software maintenance and are usually bought with it. Same person doing the work in each case.
— Questions
software maintenance — your questions.
Straight answers, including the ones that cost me work. If yours is not here, ask it — I reply the same day.
Yes, and it is most of this work. I read the code and the database first and give you an honest assessment before committing, because taking on something genuinely unmaintainable helps neither of us.
A common situation and usually recoverable. What is needed is access to the code, the database and the hosting. From there the system can be read, documented and brought back under control — the outcome is frequently more reassuring than people expect.
Yes, and it is urgent rather than theoretical. Unsupported versions receive no security patches, so known vulnerabilities stay open indefinitely. The upgrade is usually a fortnight of careful work rather than the rebuild people fear.
Either a monthly arrangement scaled to the system’s size and how often it changes, or ad-hoc work as needed. Small stable systems rarely justify a retainer, and I will say so rather than sell one.
Maintain, if the code is comprehensible and the data model is sound — those two things carry most of the value. Replace if nobody can read it, the data structure is fundamentally wrong, or it cannot be secured. I will show you the reasoning either way.
Yes, and it is frequently the most valuable single piece of work available. Reading a system and writing down how it works, what the database holds and how to deploy a change removes the dependency on any one person’s memory.
Free consultation · No obligation
Get the system back under control.
Give me access to the code and the database. You will get an honest assessment of its condition, what is urgent, and whether to maintain or replace it.
- An honest read, including "replace this"
- Security exposure identified first
- Documented as the work proceeds
- You keep the assessment either way
Start here
Send your enquiry
Name, number, email, what you need.