Mobile app development audit?

Question

Android

Hello
There is a contractor who has developed a mobile application for IOS and ANDROID and is now entering the delivery of the project. We have people on staff who can only check the visual (Frontend) component of the application. But here's what's in the code, is it documented - no.
And then the question arose, how to make an audit of the insides? Maybe there is such a blackbox that if we change the contractor, we won’t figure it out and we’ll have to do everything again.
Thanks

Answer 1

Imho the only way is to hire a developer and assign him the task of studying the given code.
Get ready for an estimate of 80-160 hours for this.
PS In 99% of cases, changing the contractor will have to be done again, this is normal.
Moreover, since 70-80% of the work is the assembly of the visual part, it is better to do it entirely from scratch with each major redesign.

Answer 2

documentation of source codes and concern for understandability - this is an additional job
IMHO I'm shielding
this should be prescribed in the contract and paid separately - or the developer will agree to do it for free

Answer 3

If a developer has to document the code, then this indicates poor code quality (the code must be self-documenting), or complex and non-obvious algorithms. In the latter case, it's okay to leave comments if the subject area is really complex. In other cases, the abundance of comments is a sign of bad when.

Answer 4

Code comments are not indicative. How much the code and the entire structure of the application will be understandable to another developer, and how easy it will be to maintain and expand the application, consists of other factors:
- Compliance with platform standards (iOS, Android) - if the implementation is done using methods typical for this platform, it will be understandable to anyone else to a developer from this platform
- Dependencies between internal and external components - "brute force" with dependencies indicates a suboptimal architecture and subsequent complexity of expansion
- How much the architecture corresponds to the subject area, that is, knowing the terminology and specifics of the application, how clear it will be which components belong to what
- Code design - cumbersome methods "long" more than one screen, inadequate variable names, suboptimal structure (nesting) of classes
In general, it is NOT normal to "do everything again" when changing contractors. This means unfortunately the previous contractor was very unprofessional.
We are developing applications and can audit the code in approximately 2-3 hours per application. If you still have a need, please contact [email protected]e