A technical due diligence report is the document that turns a vague sense that a deal “might have technology problems” into something a board or investment committee can actually price. But most teams have never seen a good one, so they don’t know what it should contain or how to structure it. This page walks through a real report structure section by section, with the exact framing each part should use.
Whether you’re buying a growth-stage business, a distressed asset, or a carve-out from a larger corporate, the report’s job is the same: flag the risks, quantify the remediation cost, and hand the integration team a plan they can execute from day one. A report that ends at “we found some technical debt” has done half the job. A useful one tells you what it costs and what to do next.
What a Technical Due Diligence Report Contains
A complete technical due diligence report has seven sections. Each maps to a specific reader need — from the executive who only reads the first page to the integration architect who lives in the appendix.
1. Executive Summary
One page. A headline verdict, the three biggest risks, their combined remediation cost, and a clear recommendation (proceed, proceed with conditions, or walk). The executive summary should stand alone: a partner who reads nothing else should be able to make an informed call. Lead with the verdict, not the methodology.
2. Technology Landscape
What the company actually runs. The application inventory, the infrastructure (cloud vs. on-premise), the data architecture, and how it all connects. This is the section that anchors everything else, and it’s the one most frequently under-done because it depends on a complete inventory — which takes disciplined discovery, not just asking the target’s CTO.
3. Architecture Assessment
How sound the underlying design is. Scalability, resilience, disaster recovery, single points of failure, integration complexity. For a carve-out, this is where shared-service dependencies surface — the systems, directories, and licences that live with the parent and can’t simply be copied.
4. Technical Debt & Code Quality
The accumulated shortcuts. Unsupported frameworks, duplicated systems from bolt-on acquisitions, missing documentation, key-person dependencies in the codebase. This section should quantify debt in terms a CFO understands: remediation cost and timeline, not just a list of sins.
5. Security & Compliance
Penetration test history, vulnerability posture, identity and access management, compliance certifications, and regulatory exposure. In a distressed deal this is frequently where the landmines are — an unpatched estate that’s been running on autopilot through the target’s financial decline.
6. Remediation Cost Estimate
The section that makes the report financially useful. Each material finding gets a cost range and a timeline, then a consolidated total. This is what feeds directly into the bid adjustment or the holdback negotiation — and it’s the section most competitors either skip or pad with a 50% “consultant contingency.”
7. Recommendations & Integration Handoff
Not just “what we found” but “what to do about it.” A prioritised roadmap, the specific handoff to post-close integration (TSA requirements, ERP migration sequence, security remediation order), and the early-warning triggers the integration team should monitor.
A Report Section, Written As It Should Be
Here’s an example of how the remediation cost section should read. Notice the framing: every finding is a number, a range, and an action — never just a named problem.
Remediation Cost Summary
The target runs three ERP instances, two of which are unconsolidated bolt-ons running on legacy platforms with no current vendor support. Consolidating to the primary instance is estimated at 220,000 to 340,000 USD and 9 to 12 months, excluding data migration (a further 80,000 to 120,000 USD and 4 to 6 months). Security hardening — closing the 14 high-severity vulnerabilities identified in the penetration test and deploying MFA across the estate — is estimated at 60,000 to 90,000 USD and 90 days. Total estimated remediation: 360,000 to 550,000 USD over 12 to 18 months. We recommend these costs be reflected in the purchase price adjustment and the TSA duration.
That’s the difference between a technical due diligence report that gets actioned and one that gets filed.
How AssetMax Produces Technical Due Diligence Reports
Diligize is built to produce this report in days rather than weeks. It inventories the application landscape, maps dependencies, quantifies technical debt, and assembles the remediation cost estimate with real benchmarks — so the report you take to committee is specific enough to underwrite, not generic enough to dismiss.
Download the Full Worked Example
This page describes the structure. To see every section written out in full with realistic, illustrative figures, download the complete worked example report. It walks through a fictional distressed mid-market carve-out from executive summary to TSA handoff, so you can model your own report on a real deliverable rather than a bare outline.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a technical due diligence report?
A technical due diligence report is a structured assessment of a target company’s technology estate — its applications, infrastructure, architecture, code quality, security, and technical debt — produced during M&A to identify risks, quantify remediation costs, and hand the integration team an actionable plan.
What should a technical due diligence report include?
Seven sections: an executive summary, technology landscape, architecture assessment, technical debt and code quality, security and compliance, remediation cost estimate, and recommendations with an integration handoff. The remediation cost section is what makes it financially actionable.
How long does technical due diligence take?
A focused technical due diligence engagement typically runs 2 to 4 weeks, depending on deal complexity and access. Distressed or carve-out situations with incomplete documentation can extend the timeline. The key is starting early — before the LOI is signed, not after.
How much does technical due diligence cost?
Technical due diligence engagements for mid-market deals typically range from 40,000 to 150,000 USD depending on scope and depth. The cost is modest relative to the downside it prevents: undiscovered technical debt is routinely the difference between a viable deal and a broken integration.
For the full framework behind technology due diligence — the seven risk areas and how to assess them — see our guide to technology risks in special situations.