Find the fractures before they become failures.
A senior-led architecture and codebase review that surfaces structural risks, tech debt hotspots, and infrastructure gaps. EUR 5,000, two weeks, two Principal Architects.
Let's talk
The situation
Tech debt compounds silently.
Your team is too deep in the work to see the structural risks building up. Architecture drifts. Dependencies rot. Infrastructure that was fine at 50 users starts cracking at 5,000.
By the time the problem surfaces, it is already expensive. An outage. A failed fundraise. A post-acquisition discovery that halts integration.
The teams that get blindsided are the ones that never looked.
Most engineering teams know something is fragile. They can feel it in slow deployments, flaky tests, and the parts of the codebase nobody wants to touch. But knowing something is wrong and knowing exactly what to fix first are different problems.
This is a diagnostic, not a guess.
Two senior architects spend 1 to 2 focused weeks reviewing your codebase, interviewing your technical leads, and mapping your risk landscape. You walk out with a 20 to 30 page technical report, a visual risk heatmap, and a prioritised roadmap.
No junior associates. No 20-person team.
Just senior engineers who know what they are looking for and where to look. Fixed price: EUR 5,000.
What you will know
Technical Health Report (20-30 pages): Architecture maturity assessment, tech debt inventory, infrastructure review, CI/CD pipeline analysis, and security risk flags. Every finding rated by severity.
Architecture and Deployment Heatmap: A single-page visual risk map across frontend, backend, infrastructure, CI/CD, and cloud. Red, Amber, Green for each component. Board-ready.
Prioritised Fixes Roadmap: Every recommendation ranked by effort and business impact. Your team knows exactly what to tackle this quarter, what to plan for, and what to deprioritise.
Executive Summary (3-5 pages): Non-technical, board-ready version of the key findings and risks. Written for a CEO, investor, or board member.
Optional Board Briefing: Live 60-minute presentation to leadership or investors. Included at no extra charge within 30 days of the findings presentation.
Every deliverable is written so you can act on it. No ambiguity. No 'it depends' answers.
How it works
Discovery
Architecture deep dive and codebase walkthrough with your CTO and lead engineers. We map the system structure, data flows, and known risk areas.
Infrastructure Review
Cloud setup, CI/CD pipelines, security posture, and development workflow assessment. We identify what is stable and what will break under pressure.
Analysis
Automated static analysis, dependency health checks, and cross-referencing of team-identified concerns with independent observations. Heatmap and roadmap construction.
Debrief
90-minute findings presentation with heatmap walkthrough, top risks, and the prioritised roadmap. All deliverables shared in writing immediately after.
Scope
What is included
Software architecture review: structure, coupling, data flows, service boundaries.
Codebase quality assessment: tech debt hotspots, dependency health, code patterns, test coverage.
Infrastructure review: cloud setup, hosting, environment configuration, security exposure points.
CI/CD pipeline analysis: build, test, deploy maturity, deployment frequency, rollback capability.
Development workflow assessment: branching strategy, review processes, incident response.
Security risk flags: authentication, secrets management, data exposure (surface-level, not a penetration test).
Architecture and Deployment Heatmap (single-page visual).
Prioritised Fixes Roadmap with effort and impact estimates.
Executive Summary for board or investor presentation.
What is not included
Penetration testing or formal security audit (separate product).
Performance load testing or benchmarking.
Line-by-line code review of every file in the repository.
Remediation or implementation of any fixes. The audit diagnoses, it does not fix.
Formal compliance certification (ISO 27001, SOC 2).
Legacy system migration planning beyond high-level recommendations.
Who does the work
Lars Strojny leads this audit. He is a Principal Consultant at Gradion with deep experience in architecture review, technical due diligence, and codebase modernisation.
Expertise
Software architecture, technical debt remediation, CI/CD pipeline design, and cloud infrastructure. Lars has reviewed and restructured systems across SaaS, fintech, e-commerce, and enterprise platforms.
Industry experience
Series A through enterprise. SaaS platforms, marketplace architectures, fintech backends, and legacy modernisation projects across DACH and APAC.
Track record
Lars leads Gradion's consulting practice and has personally delivered technical due diligence for investors, post-acquisition architecture reviews, and pre-fundraise code quality assessments. He knows what investors and boards look for.
Why Gradion
EUR 5,000 vs. EUR 30,000+
iteratec and MaibornWolff charge EUR 30,000 or more for comparable architecture reviews. Zuhlke runs EUR 10,000 to EUR 28,000 with no fixed package. Gradion delivers the same senior depth for EUR 5,000 because our architects use AI-assisted tooling to work faster without sacrificing quality.
Senior-only delivery
Two Principal Architects, no junior associates. The people who review your code are the same people who have built and operated production systems at scale.
Fast, low-disruption format
Client-facing time is 2 focused days. Most analysis happens off-site. You have findings in hand within 2 weeks of kickoff. No multi-week engagement sprawl.
Findings that are actionable, not academic
Every recommendation is ranked by effort and impact. No ambiguous advice. You walk away with a clear decision on what to fix this quarter.
Code Quality Audit
Fixed price. Senior-led. Results in two weeks.
Standard
Two weeks, two Principal Architects, full technical health report.
- Technical Health Report (20-30 pages)
- Architecture and Deployment Heatmap
- Prioritised Fixes Roadmap (effort + impact ranked)
- Executive Summary (board-ready, 3-5 pages)
- 90-minute findings presentation
- Optional board briefing (included)
- Scoped follow-on proposal (no obligation)
Frequently asked questions
How deep can you go in 3 to 4 days?
Deep enough. We combine automated static analysis with structured interviews and architecture walkthroughs. The automated tooling covers breadth (dependency health, complexity metrics, security patterns). The senior architects provide depth (architectural risk, design decisions, infrastructure gaps). Two senior engineers with the right tools outperform a team of juniors working for weeks.
What access do you need?
Read-only access to the main code repository, architecture documentation if it exists, and infrastructure overview (cloud provider, services, environments). We do not need production access, write access, or deployment permissions. Client-facing time is 4 to 6 hours across two days.
What if we already know we have problems?
Good. Knowing you have problems and knowing their severity, sequence, and interdependence are different things. The audit turns a vague sense of risk into a prioritised action plan ranked by effort and business impact. Most teams discover issues they did not know about alongside the ones they did.
Is this just for startups?
No. We work with companies from 20 to 500 employees. The most common buyers are CTOs preparing for a fundraise, engineering leads managing a post-acquisition integration, and founders who inherited a codebase they did not build. The audit is relevant whenever technical risk has business consequences.
From audit to production
The audit is the diagnosis. The follow-on engagement is the treatment. Three paths based on what we find:
Architecture Programme: structured remediation of architectural drift and deep tech debt. Typically 4 to 8 weeks.
Code Modernisation Sprint: focused refactoring of the highest-risk components. Typically 2 to 4 weeks.
Recovery Sprint: emergency intervention for teams dealing with an active production crisis.
The follow-on is scoped directly from the audit findings. No re-briefing. No wasted time. No obligation.
Code Quality Audit: EUR 5,000
Fill out the form. We confirm availability and scope within 48 hours.
- No obligation. No sales pitch.
- Response within 48 hours.
- Senior architects on every engagement.