Groundwork Assessment
Understand before committing
A Groundwork Assessment is the first three stages of the Stax Method: Understand + Model + Decide. When an important system has become difficult to maintain, extend, replace, or even fully understand, the first problem is not implementation—it is determining what you actually have, what the operation really needs, where the risk is, and which path makes sense.
The result is not automatically a development project. It is a clear recommendation.
Groundwork Assessment vs. Groundwork documentation
Groundwork Assessment is a standalone paid engagement focused on Understand + Model + Decide—before significant implementation.
Groundwork documentation is living system and context documentation maintained during a larger Stax-owned implementation (architecture, data model, build map, and related notes). Related, not identical: an Assessment does not automatically include every artifact maintained through a full build.
What an Assessment can include
- stakeholder and workflow review
- current-system inventory
- business-rule and exception inventory
- architecture, data, and integration map
- operational risk review
- technical-debt findings
- documentation of undocumented behavior
- modernization or replacement options
- prioritized implementation roadmap
Recommended path
A Groundwork Assessment ends with a clear recommendation:
- Maintain — the current system is basically healthy.
- Stabilize — fix the risky pieces without rebuilding everything.
- Extend — keep the system and add what is missing.
- Modernize — replace components incrementally.
- Rebuild — the current system no longer makes economic sense to preserve.
- Replace — an existing platform may solve the problem better than custom software.
What you receive
Depending on scope, a Groundwork Assessment may produce:
- current-state system map
- workflow and business-rule findings
- architecture, data, and integration map
- risk findings
- documented unknown or undocumented behavior
- a clear recommendation
- a prioritized roadmap where implementation is warranted
Not every engagement produces every artifact. Scope follows the problem.
What I need from you
- access to relevant stakeholders
- access to existing systems, code, or data where appropriate
- existing documentation, if any
- time with people who understand how the operation actually runs
What happens next
After a Groundwork Assessment:
- Stax may implement the recommended path
- Stax may work with your existing engineering team
- another vendor or off-the-shelf platform may be the better answer
- the correct decision may be not to make a major change
Related reading: Maintain, modernize, rebuild, replace—or leave it alone? →
Standalone Groundwork Assessments start around $3,500. Larger modernization or multi-system engagements are scoped according to complexity. When ownership itself is broken, the same process is packaged for buyers as an Application Takeover Assessment.