Software Evolution vs Big Bang Software Redevelopment
I’m willing to bet you know of at least one large scale technical project that has failed. A project that did not deliver on its grand promises and wasted millions or billions of pounds in development. The reasons for its failure has probably become shrouded in a cloud of tweets and finger pointing, legal teams on all sides engage in combat over who owes who compensation for what, but in the end the project is left in the dust to be quietly forgotten.
Technology products cannot afford to stay still.
The landscape is constantly evolving and there comes a point where they creak at the seams, no longer run well in modern environments and end up in painful need of major surgery.
What do you do at this point? Do you throw the old system out, and re-design it, using all the new shiny tools and technologies that are available today? Or do you keep it running like an old classic car, spending more and more on maintenance to ensure it is in fit condition for it’s annual day out in August.
If a product no longer serves a purpose, it should be left to die.
For example you might think that an old Coal Power Station no longer has any purpose, and should be wound down and eventually decommissioned in a world where burning coal is no longer an acceptable means of…