Fractional CTO and technical due diligence
“We're about to commit to a big software purchase, migration, or AI project, and we want someone independent to check it first.”
A fractional CTO is an experienced technology leader who works with your business part time. You get someone to own the technical decisions, review what vendors and developers propose, and keep the plan honest, without the cost of a full-time executive.
Many expensive technology mistakes are visible early to someone who has lived with the consequences: a vendor that can't export your data, a migration that assumes both systems mean the same thing by "customer", an AI pilot with no way to check its output. I've been on the buying side, the building side, and the cleanup side, and I'll tell you plainly what I'd do.
How the work goes
Read everything
Contracts, proposals, diagrams, and the current system's documentation, or its absence.
Test the assumptions
I find the claims the plan depends on and check the ones that are cheap to verify now and expensive to discover later.
Write it down
You get a clear recommendation, the risks ranked, and the questions to put to vendors.
Stay on if it helps
For ongoing work, I keep a regular cadence with you and your developers or vendors, and own the technical decisions you want owned.
Where I've done this
Founded ProcessFast and have run Ops Insights for more than a decade, making the build, buy, hosting, and hiring decisions myself. See more
Have evaluated and integrated against the major title production systems, including direct-database versus API-only trade-offs. See more
Leading a large PHP 7.4 to 8.5 modernization, using a code knowledge graph to trace dependencies before changing them. See more
Related case studies
Common questions
What is a fractional CTO?
A senior technology leader who works with a company part time or on a retainer. They make and review technical decisions, guide developers and vendors, and plan the roadmap, for businesses that need that judgment but not a full-time executive.
When does a small business need one?
Usually at a decision point: choosing or replacing core software, starting an AI or automation project, taking over a codebase from a departing developer, or evaluating a technology company you might buy or invest in.
What does technical due diligence cover?
The architecture, code quality, infrastructure and security, the data and who controls it, dependence on key people or vendors, and what it would really cost to scale or maintain. You get the findings ranked by business risk.
Can you review something quickly?
Often, yes. A focused review of one proposal or plan can be short. Tell me the decision and the deadline.
Tell me what's slowing the business down.
Describe the problem in plain terms. I read every message myself and reply when there's something I can genuinely help with.
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