Stalled projects usually share the same shape: scope was underestimated, communication degraded, and both sides stopped trusting the status reports.

Week one of a rescue

• Code review of what has been built, including test coverage and deployment setup.
• Requirements reconciliation — what was agreed versus what exists versus what is still needed.
• An honest completion estimate with assumptions stated.
• A recommendation with options: continue, hand over, or restart, each with a cost.

Handling the incumbent

Rescues go better when the outgoing team hands over cleanly. Preserve the relationship where you can — access to repositories, credentials and undocumented decisions is worth more than the satisfaction of a hard exit.

What to avoid

Do not sign a fixed-price completion before the assessment is done. Nobody can price the remaining work on a codebase they have not read, and a number given before that point is a guess you will pay to correct.