Why would you hire a development shop without technical oversight?
The Reality:
Professional development agencies build software. But you're not technical. You can't tell if they're building maintainable, secure code or creating a $245K/year maintenance disaster. A fractional CTO is your software home inspector - protecting your investment before it's too late.
$300,000 Investment
The seller says everything is fine. The house looks great. But you hire a home inspector anyway because:
Nobody thinks you're being mean to the seller. You're protecting yourself.
$300,000 Investment
The dev shop says everything will be great. The demos look good. But you should have technical oversight because:
A fractional CTO is your software home inspector. It's due diligence, not distrust.
Development agencies aren't trying to rip you off. But without someone on your side who understands code, you have no way to verify quality until it's too late.
They're paid by the hour. More complexity = more hours = more revenue. A fractional CTO on a fixed retainer has no incentive to make problems last longer.
When the project ends, they move on. They won't be there when you discover 43% code duplication is costing you $245K/year to maintain.
The demos work. Features ship. But you have no way to know if the code is maintainable, secure, or architected correctly until much later.
It's Not About Trust. It's About Verification.
Good dev shops welcome oversight. It protects both parties and ensures everyone is on the same page about quality standards.
A B2B SaaS company hired a professional development shop to build their platform. $310K investment over 18 months. The app worked. Features shipped. Demos looked great. They were preparing for enterprise sales and SOC 2 certification.
The dev shop wasn't malicious. They delivered features. But without technical oversight:
(Includes $310K dev shop + $6K/mo CTO × 18 months = $108K oversight cost)
*Cost projections and savings estimates are based on an actual client engagement with numbers adjusted for confidentiality. Maintenance costs, security vulnerabilities, and technical debt vary significantly based on codebase size, complexity, business requirements, and development practices. Results are not guaranteed and will vary based on individual circumstances.
Good development shops welcome third-party oversight. It protects both parties and ensures everyone agrees on quality standards. If a dev shop objects to technical oversight, that's a red flag.
Think of it this way: A good contractor doesn't get offended when you hire a home inspector. Neither does a professional dev shop.
The dev shop's PM works for the dev shop. Their job is to deliver the project on time and on budget for their company. They're not evaluating whether the code is maintainable, secure, or architected correctly from your perspective.
You need someone on your side who understands code and has your best interests as their only priority.
Best: Before you hire the dev shop. Help evaluate vendors, review proposals, set quality standards in the contract.
Good: During development. Weekly code reviews catch issues before they compound.
Still valuable: After delivery. A comprehensive audit before you pay the final invoice gives you negotiating power to fix issues.
Better to find out now than after you've spent another $500K in maintenance and lost enterprise deals. The audit gives you:
Before you sign that contract with a dev shop, understand who will control your application infrastructure. This is one of the most expensive mistakes I see businesses make.
I regularly encounter projects where clients discover they have zero administrative access to their own application infrastructure after significant time and investment. Here's a common pattern:
The Cost of Separation:
This isn't always malicious - it's just how many dev shops operate by default. But you're effectively locked into the vendor relationship with no ability to switch, scale independently, or even troubleshoot your own production issues.
I had a client whose family member handled all their IT - capable developer, trusted completely, built their entire system. Then they had a medical emergency and passed away unexpectedly.
The family member had been good at their job. The problem? Zero continuity planning.
The business was locked out of systems that were running their entire operation. We were able to come up with a plan to regain access, but it took time - time the business couldn't afford to waste.
This isn't about trust. This is about business continuity. Whether it's a vendor, a family member, or your most trusted employee - no single person should be able to take your business offline by becoming unavailable.
The saddest part: This person cared about the business and would have set things up properly if they'd known it mattered. No one plans on being hit by a train.
All cloud resources must live in your AWS/Azure/GCP account, not the dev shop's.
Code must live in your GitHub/GitLab organization, not the dev shop's.
You must have administrative access to everything:
All external services must be registered to your business:
Dev shop may help set these up, but they must be in your name with your payment method.
Ask these questions during vendor evaluation. Professional dev shops will have clear, confident answers:
❓ "Will the application run in my AWS/Azure/GCP account or yours?"
✓ Good answer: "Yours - we'll need IAM access to set it up and deploy, but you own the infrastructure."
✗ Bad answer: "We host it in our infrastructure for simplicity."
❓ "Will I have admin access to the cloud console, database, and CI/CD pipeline?"
✓ Good answer: "Yes, we'll set up your admin account first, then create our deployment roles."
✗ Bad answer: "You don't need that - we'll handle all deployments and infrastructure."
❓ "Will the code repository be in my GitHub/GitLab organization?"
✓ Good answer: "Yes - we'll have you create the repo and add our team as collaborators."
✗ Bad answer: "We'll keep it in our org during development and transfer it at the end."
❓ "If we part ways, what's involved in me taking over or moving to another vendor?"
✓ Good answer: "Nothing - you already own everything. We'd just remove our access permissions."
✗ Bad answer: "We'd need to migrate everything - probably 4-8 weeks and $X,000."
A Fractional CTO Ensures This Happens:
One of the first things I do when helping evaluate or onboard a dev shop is ensure infrastructure ownership is set up correctly. It's a simple checklist that protects you from months of headaches later.
This is exactly the kind of thing non-technical business owners don't know to ask for - and by the time you discover it's a problem, fixing it is expensive.
All engagement tiers include development shop oversight capabilities. Choose based on how much time you need per month.
Best for: Pre-project advisory
Best for: Smaller dev projects
Best for: Most dev shop projects
Best for: Large-scale projects
Starting at $1,000/Month for Strategic Counsel
Just like you wouldn't skip the home inspector on a $300K house purchase.
Schedule Free Consultation →Whether you're about to hire a development shop, currently in a project, or want an audit of completed work - we can help ensure your investment is protected.