Messy Tech Project? How to Regain Control Without Throwing Everything Away

It’s a classic, painful scenario. You had a vision, a budget, and a deadline. Six months later, the budget is gone, the deadline is missed, and the app is unstable.

You’re now facing the big question: should you keep going with the current team or switch to a new web agency?

At Fenxi, we see this kind of project arrive regularly. It’s even the first step in our service offering: taking over existing systems.

Why Do So Many Tech Projects Hit the Wall?

Before looking for the cure, you need to understand the disease. In 90% of the takeover projects we handle, the root causes are the same:

• A fuzzy scope: The goal wasn’t clearly defined. As a result, new features keep getting added on the fly, making the code more complex without ever stabilising the foundation.
• Bad technical choices: The previous agency chose a technology simply because it’s the only one they know, not because it fits your business needs.
• Lack of transparency: Everything looked like it was moving forward while technical debt was quietly piling up in the background.

The Critical Checklist Before “Firing” Your Current Provider

You’ve decided to change agency? Careful. First make sure you’ve secured your assets. A brutal transition can cost you everything you’ve built so far.

Here’s what you absolutely must recover (in order of importance):

1. Access to the source code (Git): Make sure you have administrator rights on the repository (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, …). This is your intellectual property, and it’s the most important asset.
2. Hosting and SaaS access: The servers (machines) where your code and surrounding tools live are hosted somewhere. If the agency holds the keys to the server, you’re a hostage.
   • Cloud: AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, OVH, Scaleway, …
   • Payments: Stripe, Adyen, …
   • Transactional emails: Sendgrid, Mailgun, …
3. Technical documentation: If the previous agency produced any technical documentation, don’t hesitate to ask for it. It can be very useful for the new team.

Tip: Run this audit quietly or contractually before announcing the end of the commercial relationship.

How to Structure a Project Takeover (The Fenxi Method)

Taking over an existing application is not just about “copy-pasting” the code to another host. Here’s our standard roadmap for the first weeks:

1. Code Audit

We analyse code quality, security, and scalability. The goal is to answer one key question: are we able to work safely and efficiently with the existing codebase?

2. Securing the System and Quick Wins

Before building any new features, we focus on fixing critical bugs that block the business and on updating frameworks, libraries, and infrastructure to supported versions.

3. The 90-Day Roadmap

Once the fire is under control, we can finally focus on what’s next. We usually run an audit (UX, UI, user needs) to define upcoming priorities. We then set a strict scope for the next 3 months. The goal: ship useful features quickly.

The Dilemma: Fix or Rebuild?

This is the hardest decision. Sometimes the technical debt is so high that trying to patch the current code will cost more (in time and money) than starting from scratch with the right technologies.

Need an Honest Diagnosis?

You’ve already lost enough time on promises. At Fenxi, we offer a takeover audit of your software. We analyse the code, architecture, and processes. At the end of the week, we deliver a transparent report telling you whether it’s worth continuing on the existing codebase or if it’s time to restart on solid foundations.

If you haven’t started a tech project yet, feel free to read this article to help you choose the right agency.