Change of an information system provider

It often happens that after a long period of collaboration an organization changes the IT service provider which handled the development of some internal system. It can be for example an ERP system built for the company internal needs. Such situation often happens when a key programmer, and the only person who has knowledge about the project, is leaving from the company.

How to deal with the process of the change of the provider of the system maintenance? The best solution is to find a successor of the programming service provider even before the termination of the ongoing collaboration. Then the professional programming company will help you with the process of change.

While taking the charge of a third party project it is important to remember about a few key things. We have prepared a list of questions which can help you to understand the situation. Here it is:

• Sources
  • Where is the source code and the main code repository of the project?
  • Is there any chance the programmers have their own local repositories of the project with a newer version of the source code than in the official repo?
  • Will all the sources and delivered materials be removed from previous supplier’s repositories and servers?
  • Is it possible to build a project based only on the source code in repository?
  • Does the version of the code in the repositories matches the code running on the production servers?
  • Is code in repository complete? Does it include all the libraries and third party components?
  • Have the installation instruction for the production environment been provided?
  • Have the scripts for setting up the production environment been provided?

• Requirements
  • Is it known who is the business client and who does define the system requirements?
  • Is there any user manual?
  • How the user’s manuals are versioned?
  • Is there a roadmap or an application development plan?
  • What progress has been made on the development version?
  • What technical issues and potential problems have started to come up in the software?

• Access
  • Who has an administration access to the server?
  • How to create an account and assign permissions?
  • Can the all the permissions be given by a non-programmer?

• Servers
  • Who has access to the servers?
  • Where is the server room?
  • Who prolong and pay certificates and other services needed for server operations?
  • Is any software for monitoring the function of the servers and the system used?

• Dependencies between the system and external software
  • Does the project use any paid subsystems or components?
  • Does it connect with external API?
  • Who is responsible for payment for the external services?
  • What is a guarantee of the external services continuity?
  • What are the procedures associated with the external software updates?

ImpiCode has a great experience with taking charge of development and maintenance of various third party projects. Fill free to contact us in case of any similar problem.