Digital Technology Due Diligence

Qualitative assessments through Q&A offer good insights of how the tech team operates and thus give you a first indication of the technical quality. However, the spoken word quickly sounds convincing and the paper with elaborated architectural diagrams might not represent the actual implementation.

Therefore any qualitative approach never offers much more beyond a gut feeling. Thus, digging deeper and taking a look under the hood, into the code base, are essential to turn gut feelings into validated facts.

Apart from the technology itself, a tech DD is an assessment of an organisation's ability to deliver the technology. Therefore it is critical to get as much face-time with the tech team as possible - the best setup is always to apply the dual-approach of qualitative Q&A and hands-on deep dives into the code base and architecture. How the team responds to challenges, the quality of explanations and their thought-process or decision-making are just as important, as the effective code written.

Before investing into a business, you may want to get an estimate of how far off the current technology is from sustaining the next milestones or the business goals. Specifically: How much product or technology development effort is still needed? This gap analysis not only helps you to validate the investment amount, but also impacts the valuation of the target and gives an idea about subsequent funding needs.