Is It Time for a Second Opinion on Your Software?

April 23rd, 2025

Introduction

At Solution Street, we’re often introduced to organizations that are facing a moment of uncertainty or simply seeking reassurance. These companies may be questioning the state of their software systems, including the scalability and security of their architecture, or evaluating the effectiveness of their development team. In many cases, they’ve reached the same conclusion: it’s time to bring in a fresh perspective.

Sometimes this need is sparked by growth, an update of the software, or a shift in business priorities. Other times, it’s driven by simply a gut feeling that something isn’t quite right. Whatever the reason, an independent architectural review can bring clarity, validation, and actionable insights.

In this article, I’ll explore the common reasons companies engage Solution Street to perform an architectural review, and discuss what such a review typically includes from code and infrastructure assessments to team processes and technical strategy.

Signs It Is Time for an Architectural Review

Lack of Visibility into External Software Development

One of the most common scenarios that initiates an architectural review is when a company outsources software development (whether offshore, nearshore, or onshore) and finds itself with little to no visibility into the project’s progress or technical quality.

This lack of transparency shows itself in several ways:

No knowledge of where the source code is stored.
Lack of insight into the health, completeness or secureness of the software.
No shared roadmap.
And most often, no insight into how features are being implemented or tracked; stakeholders not being included in regular progress updates, such as sprint demos, or not having access to tools like issue trackers or project boards.

When the key stakeholders at a company are unsure of some of these items above, confidence in the outsourced vendor is very low and the likelihood of project failure increases significantly. An independent architectural review in this situation provides clarity by assessing the current state of the codebase, evaluating development practices, and identifying potential gaps in delivery processes or communication.

Internal IT Staff Challenges

Another common reason companies seek an architectural review is when they rely on their internal IT staff but begin to notice some troubling warning signs.

Some of the red flags include:

Departure of key developers – When critical team members leave, they often take with them essential system knowledge.
Accumulation of significant technical debt.
Use of multiple, disparate frameworks – This is often the result of new developers joining the team and wanting to try the latest and coolest frameworks, or just having a “favorite” or known framework that they are most comfortable using.
High volume of defects, performance issues, and concerns raised by internal staff/users of the system.
A significant decrease in velocity for new feature development – or just a plain lack of “getting things done.”

In these situations, an architectural review can give a clear picture of how the system is really doing and how development processes may be impeding or slowing down development, and offer advice on how to fix some of these issues.

Benefits of an Architectural Review

An architectural review should evaluate not just the software/architecture but processes and people. The overriding benefit of an architectural review looks at a company’s people, process, and product holistically. Although a company’s software issues or concerns may trigger the need for a review, the issues may be related to the people or processes.

Here are some of the main architectural benefits:

Identifying current software status – An architectural review helps understand where the software stands today. It gives a clear picture of what’s working, what might be broken, and what needs attention.
Assessing architectural health – The review looks at how well the system is designed. Is it built to scale? Is it easy to maintain? Is it secure and stable? This helps uncover weaknesses before they become bigger problems.
Mitigating technical debt – Over time, quick fixes and workarounds can add up. A review highlights areas of technical debt and offers guidance on how to reduce it in a practical way.
Standardizing frameworks – If the system uses a mix of different tools or frameworks, things can get messy fast. A review can recommend ways to simplify and standardize your technology stack, making development smoother and more consistent.
Improving overall software quality – Highlighting performance issues, or design flaws that are holding the system back, and getting clear recommendations for fixing them.

Additionally there are benefits related to processes and people:

Evaluating deployment practices – Review how code is moved from development to production; looking at automation, reliability, and rollback strategies.

Improving feature delivery and maintenance – Determine how new features are tracked, developed, and supported over time. Are features easy to release? Are bugs addressed quickly?
Enhancing development workflows – Examine how the team collaborates. This includes code reviews, testing practices, issue tracking and suggested improvements for faster and more stable releases.
Clarifying team roles and responsibilities – Make sure it’s clear who owns what parts of the system and how communication flows between developers, testers, and stakeholders.

Conclusion

Realizing that you might need a second opinion, especially when it comes to a software product or development effort, can be a tough pill to swallow. Management has often already invested significant time and money in a team or vendor, and there’s a strong hope that things will work out in the end. But when warning signs start to appear such as missed deadlines, growing technical debt, lack of visibility, or gut feelings that something isn’t right, it’s wise to pause and bring in an outside perspective.

Companies that choose to pursue an architectural review are frequently glad they did. An unbiased assessment from someone outside the team helps to surface risks that may have gone unnoticed or unspoken. Whether it’s issues in the code, process gaps, or team dynamics, simply identifying the root causes allows companies to make informed decisions and course-correct before the situation becomes more costly.