reverse engineer

found here, one firm does a little talk on the subject. if your company has has crap for documentation, buy a clue and get it documented before you fire the employee. This was why I had to do so much travel last year.. to reverse engineer for 'the sister company'. too bad it didn't influence my review or raise.

Ironically, many companies come to us not to reverse engineer a competitors product, but to reverse engineer their own designs, because they have poor or no documentation on their product, because their current design firm or manufacturer refuses to release it, or because they have lost a key employee.

Many companies learn the hard way that there is an inherent conflict of interest in using a contract manufacturer (CM) to do design work. If you retain a contract manufacturer to do the design as well as the manufacturing of the product, there is little motivation for the (CM) to give you accurate documentation, enabling you to use a different manufacturer if you become dissatisfied at a later time.