How CTOs Should Assess Engineering Partner Health

Engineering partnerships often underdeliver gradually, making problems harder to detect than obvious failure. The article sets out seven questions for assessing delivery consistency, code maintainability, risk communication, business understanding, process resilience, proactive contribution and outcome alignment. It also recommends using delivery data, internal code review and a measurable 30/60/90-day improvement plan before deciding whether to reset or replace a partner. CTOs can use the framework to turn subjective concerns into a structured governance decision.