Developer disappeared? What to secure in the first week

The posts on forums read alike. A deposit paid, a system that half works, a developer whose replies got slower and then stopped. Sometimes the developer is ill, sometimes they have taken a full-time job, sometimes their company has gone under. The reason matters less than the first week, because the things you most need are usually still within reach while everybody is being polite. Agencies call what follows software project rescue.

Day one: secure what you can reach

1. 1The web address. Find out whose name it is registered in. If the renewal reminders have never reached you, it is probably sitting in somebody else’s account. If it is the developer’s, ask for a transfer now, while relations are civil. For a .uk address the current holder starts the transfer and pays Nominet £10 plus VAT, and you have five days to accept it.
2. 2The hosting account, meaning the company whose computers the system runs on. Find out whose card pays for it. If it is the developer’s, the system disappears the month that card stops being charged. Ask for the account to be moved into your company’s name, and get a full copy out before anything else.
3. 3A copy of the system and its data. That means the source code (the files another developer would need to run and change it), a full copy of the data it holds, and any notes on how it is set up. Ask in writing.
4. 4Every login. List them: hosting, domain, the service that sends its emails, the payment provider, the app store accounts, the connection to your accounts package. Change the passwords on everything in your name, and remove the developer’s access to anything that holds customer data.
5. 5The app store listings, if there are any. Apple and Google both let an app move from one developer account to another, but only the current holder can start it. Apple also needs the app to have had at least one version released, and the receiving account has 60 days to accept.

Who owns what was built

UK copyright law treats software as a literary work, like a book. The author owns it first. If the author was your employee, doing their job, it is yours. If not, it stays with the author unless they have assigned it to you in a signed document. Work done by an agency’s own staff belongs to the agency to begin with, not to the client.

In practice, start by assuming the developer is overwhelmed rather than hostile. A short written request that lists exactly what you want, and offers to pay any undisputed invoice for finished work in return, tends to get more back than a threat does.

Rescue it or start again

Once you have a copy, somebody independent needs to read it, run it and check the data. A few days usually answers four questions.

1. 1Can anyone other than the original developer run it? If it only works on their laptop, everything else waits until it works somewhere else.
2. 2How much of what you were promised exists and works? Count working screens against the original quote, not against the developer’s last update.
3. 3Is the data sound? A system can be rewritten. Three years of customer records cannot.
4. 4Is it built on parts that still get security fixes? If not, they have to be brought up to date before anything else, and nobody using the system will see that work. Software maintenance and support explains why.

Rescue it when most of it works, the data is sound and the parts are current. Start again when nobody else can run it, or when bringing it up to date costs most of a rebuild. Either way, keep the data and everything the first attempt taught you about the process. A second build goes faster because the first one found the awkward cases.

Making sure it cannot happen twice

• A signed clause assigning to you the copyright in everything written for you, on payment. What bespoke software is explains why this matters more than the price.
• Every account in your company’s name from the first day: domain, hosting, app stores, email services. The developer gets access, never ownership.
• A copy of the system delivered to you every month, so you are never more than a month behind.
• Payments tied to working things you can see rather than to dates. Fixed price or time and materials covers how.
• A written handover clause: what you receive at the end, and in what form.
• More than one person who has seen the system. A single freelancer is fine for a small job. For a system the business runs on, choose a supplier where somebody else can pick it up.