Your Project Is Failing. We Have Seen This Before.
When a project is failing, the fastest path forward is an honest read of the damage and a team that can act on it immediately. Senior engineers on-site or deployed within days - not weeks.
When You Need This
You need this conversation if any of the following applies:
A project has missed multiple milestones without a credible recovery plan. A vendor has delivered a system with no documentation and no version control. Key engineers have left and platform stability is uncertain. A recent acquisition is running on fragile infrastructure and the integration timeline is slipping. A regulatory deadline is approaching and the platform is not ready.
If you recognise one of these, keep reading. If you recognise several, call us today.
Proof In Production
Swiss FINMA Credit System - Delivered in 8 Weeks A trusted Swiss provider of digital credit solutions had a decade-old legacy platform that was too expensive to maintain and too slow to adapt. FINMA's tightening regulatory requirements made the status quo untenable. Gradion worked alongside the client's internal architecture team to define a modern blueprint, rewrite the core application, and embed compliance from the foundation up. The new architecture passed a Big Four security and compliance audit without material revisions. Delivered in 8 weeks.
Regional Leader in PVC Window Production - Cold Start from Zero Fensterhai.de came to Gradion after the previous software vendor left with no handover: no documentation, no architectural diagrams, and source code without version control history. Gradion reverse-engineered the codebase from scratch, rebuilt the platform with a modern UI and optimised checkout, and resolved the performance and stability issues that had been suppressing conversion rates. The engagement began from zero and delivered a production-grade platform.
DEPOT - Emergency Mobilisation, 13-person Team DEPOT's digital platform was failing under early-stage technical limitations from its commerce platform provider. Customer experience was degrading across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Gradion mobilised a 13-person cross-functional team - mobile, frontend, backend - without a handover from the prior setup. The team rebuilt the mobile app, web shop, and platform integration layer. DEPOT now delivers a consistent digital experience across the DACH region without the performance and scalability issues that triggered the engagement.
German PE Portfolio - 3-day Stabilisation, 20-brand Audit A newly acquired portfolio company implemented cost reductions that triggered senior developer departures. Institutional knowledge and operational control left with them. Gradion deployed a senior engineering team within days, took control of core systems, and stabilised the platform without service interruption - within 3 days of engagement. Separately, Gradion delivered full-stack technical audits across a 20-brand portfolio in 2 weeks, giving the fund clear visibility into risk, debt, and opportunity before integration decisions were made.
All figures are from live engagements. Additional references available under NDA.
The Failure Patterns We See
Failing projects rarely fail for one reason. The visible symptom: a missed deadline, a vendor dispute, a platform outage the week after an acquisition closes. The underlying structure: accumulated technical decisions made without governance, scope that expanded faster than delivery capacity, knowledge concentrated in people who have since left.
Programmes fail differently. Multi-vendor engagements collapse when no one owns the integration layer. Platform migrations stall when the legacy system cannot be cleanly decoupled. Post-M&A integrations degrade when the acquiring firm underestimates what it has actually bought.
In each case, the recovery path is the same: a fast, unsparing assessment followed by disciplined execution under clear ownership.
How We Work In A Rescue
Assessment → Stabilisation → Governance. In that order.
Phase | What happens | Typical timeframe |
|---|---|---|
Rapid Assessment | We map what exists: architecture, codebase, documentation gaps, dependencies, team capacity, open risks. We distinguish between what is broken and what is merely unfamiliar. Output: a written triage - what to fix immediately, what to stabilise over 2–4 weeks, what can wait. No workshops. A working document. | 3–5 days |
Immediate Stabilisation | Critical paths first. We restore system continuity before optimising anything. Where knowledge has walked out, we reverse-engineer what was left and document it as we go. Where multiple vendors are producing incompatible work, we establish integration ownership and a single source of truth. | 2–4 weeks |
Governance & Handover | Rescue without governance restores the conditions for the next failure. We put delivery cadence, decision rights, and escalation paths in place as part of the engagement - not after it. Handover to your internal team or long-term partner with full documentation and working systems. | 2–4 weeks |
Where the situation requires it, Gradion can also apply AI-assisted codebase analysis to compress the assessment timeline - surfacing architectural anti-patterns, dependency risks, and test coverage gaps in days rather than weeks.
After rescue: When stabilisation is complete and the immediate crisis is resolved, many clients move into a longer-term modernisation engagement. The Recovery & Modernization practice handles this transition - same team, same context, no handover gap.
How To Engage
Two ways to start, depending on urgency.
Discovery Workshop
3–10 days · A rapid, senior-led diagnostic to identify why your project is off track. Root-cause analysis across delivery, team, and architecture. You get a stabilisation plan with priorities and owners.
Realignment Project
3+ months · Working alongside your leadership to restore control. Restructure delivery, fix governance gaps, and rebuild momentum with clear milestones and accountability.
If the situation is acute, we skip the workshop and deploy directly. Assessment happens in parallel with stabilisation - because when production is at risk, sequential phases are a luxury.
Describe the situation. We will scope an initial engagement within days.
The sooner we assess, the more options remain. Projects that reach us early retain more of their original architecture, timeline, and team. Projects that reach us late still get stabilised - but the cost of recovery is higher.
FINMA system in 8 weeks
A Swiss FINMA credit system was delivered in 8 weeks - a regulated, production-grade financial system on a timeline most teams would consider impossible.