Code Inspection, Auditing And Review

There are many issues to take into account when considering offshore development.  A few links to articles/postings/comments about some of them follow:

Outsourcing and Offshore Coders- Good or Evil-

Offshore Outsourcing

A common warning can be found here: be wary of the quality of the code that is produced.  Many places that resort to offshore development lack the development staff and/or the finances to get the job done themselves.  But this has another, often less thought-of downside: if you do not have the people to write it (i.e. you lack core competencies), then you do not have the people to verify its quality.

Where there is no such thing as bug-free software, some of the more important ones, such as insecure or carelessly-written code that can enable an attacker to impact a software system, must be discovered and resolved before the code ships!  Independent code review of code is no longer an option; in today's world of worms and buffer-based attacks, it is a requirement.

This is yet another area where JRTwine Software can help.  JRTwine Software and our partners have been doing various forms of software development for years.  We know software; we know the ways in which it can be compromised; and we know how to fix them.

We can put our development resources at your disposal to quickly perform code Inspection, Auditing and Review of codebases that are produced from overseas (or even domestic) sources.  We will find issues before your customers do.

So think long and hard about the code you are about to put into production.  If you are not certain of its quality, give us a call. 

As we gain experience with various development groups, we will also be able to render opinions on the ones that produce better quality code. 

Coding Auditing and Review tasks are often done for a flat rate, but some larger or more complex projects may require an hourly rate.  In order to get an price (flat rate) or an estimate of hourly cost, contact us at codereview@jrtwine.com.  In order to provide a price or estimate, we will need the following information:

1. Details on the project's type, functionality, and scope
    
2. Language or languages used
    
3. Estimated code size (total KB of files to be checked) for each language)
    
4. A sample of the code (one source code file for each language is usually enough)

Of course, we are willing to sign NDAs and keep your intellectual property secure.  Contact us at codereview@jrtwine.com.