My firm has been building apps (web and mobile) for the past 15 years. I've seen a lot of situations similar to this and have been on the receiving end of partially completed apps in various states.

I would agree with some of the others in that it is normally a difficult task for a developer to pick up an application mid-stream due to the technical knowledge required to understand the app. You should expect some expense or required time in bringing the new developer up to speed with the work that has been done.

However, I would say that it is always possible to pick up a project and move it forward if you find a developer who is willing to make it work. If the code was well structured and documented, it can be fairly straight forward for a new developer to come in and pick things up where they were left off. If things were not structured well, or undocumented, it can take a bit more time.

As a developer, I would ask you the following questions:

- What were the details of the problems that lead you to have to switch teams at this stage?
- Do you have ownership and control over the codebase from both a software licensing perspective and an access perspective? As one other expert mentioned, getting ownership over the code repository on Github would be a great first step.
- What are the details of what needs to be done? What doesn't work, what is left to do?
- Can we take a look at the codebase and make an assessment to the quality of the code and complexity? There are some automated tools we use to analyze a codebase to determine complexity and quality. Giving someone access to a Github repository is an easy way to allow a quick review.
- Is there documentation or a written specification for the codebase?
- Is the app running in a beta environment? If this is an iOS app, can I get access to the beta version of the app via TestFlight?

I think the answers to those questions would cover most of the high level details that a new developer would need to help you plan out next steps.

Let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Josh Cramer
FullStack