Technical due diligence
A review of a company’s software, team and processes before an investment or acquisition, to price the technical risk.
Investors and buyers ask who owns the code, how it is built and deployed, how secure and scalable it is, what depends on one person, which licenses the dependencies use and what it would cost to fix the worst parts. Founders who prepare beforehand answer in days instead of weeks. Findings rarely kill a deal; surprises lower the price.
Related terms
- Technical debt: Shortcuts in code and design that speed up delivery now and make every later change slower until they are paid back.
- Bus factor: How many people would have to disappear before a project stalls. A bus factor of one means one person holds the keys.
- Source code ownership (IP assignment): Who legally owns the code you paid for. In Poland, a contractor’s code becomes yours only through a written transfer of rights.
