Analysis & Debugging
Analysis, Debugging & Code Review
Something is broken, slow, or just wrong - and nobody can figure out exactly why. I dig into complex codebases, trace production issues to their root cause, and deliver permanent fixes. Not workarounds, not patches over patches.
Background
As Head of E-Commerce & Software Development at a German Software Development Agency, a significant part of my role was diagnosing production issues that had been open for weeks - performance regressions after deployments, intermittent checkout failures, cache poisoning, broken order import jobs. These are the problems that don't reproduce in staging, that error logs don't explain clearly, and that require someone willing to go deep.
Five years of working inside Magento 1 codebases - with their layers of observers, rewrites, and EAV complexity - gives you a different kind of debugging intuition. You learn where to look first, how to isolate variables in a complex dependency graph, and when the issue is in the application versus the infrastructure.
This service is available standalone - you don't need to hire me for ongoing work to get a focused diagnostic engagement.
What I Deliver
Root Cause Analysis
Systematic investigation of production bugs - reading logs, tracing request flows, isolating variables, and identifying the actual cause rather than its symptoms.
Performance Profiling
Identifying bottlenecks in PHP application code, slow database queries, cache misses, N+1 query patterns, and infrastructure-level constraints.
Magento / OpenMage Debugging
Diagnosing observer conflicts, rewrite clashes, broken checkout flows, import/export failures, and frontend rendering issues in Magento 1 and OpenMage.
Code Reviews
Structured review of codebases or pull requests - focusing on correctness, security vulnerabilities, performance implications, and maintainability.
Architecture Assessment
Review of an existing codebase or infrastructure setup with a written report on what's working, what's at risk, and what should be addressed in what order.
Migration Planning
Technical scoping for platform migrations - assessing the real complexity, identifying blockers, and producing a realistic plan before committing to a timeline.
How an Engagement Works
Most diagnostic engagements start with a call where you describe the problem as you understand it. I'll ask targeted questions to understand the environment, recent changes, and what's already been tried. From there I either dive in directly or provide an upfront estimate of the investigation scope.
Findings are documented - not just a verbal "it was X" but a written explanation of what the root cause was, why it happened, how it was fixed, and what to watch for going forward. Knowledge transfer, not dependency.
Rates for diagnostic work: €70/h. For well-scoped reviews (e.g. code review of a defined module or feature), fixed-price is possible.
Environments I Work In
Have a problem nobody can figure out?
Describe the issue. I'll tell you honestly whether it's something I can help with and what a realistic investigation looks like.
Get in Touch