Legacy .NET
by
Don Estes
 |
| Choosing The Strategy So, if the business process is flexible, has a loose coupling between
their business and IT processes, and a low cost of error, then replacement is probably the
strategy of choice. If there is an off the shelf package or even a semi-customized package
that will fit the requirement, and particularly if the system in question is not seen as a
competitive asset, then this is probably the best route. However, if the system is or
could be crafted as a competitive asset, then custom development may win out over even
strong packages, always assuming the cost meets financial criteria, of course.
|
| Competition Assessment |
Strategy Bias |
| Application is competitive asset |
Custom development |
| Application is a commodity function |
Package |
|
Replacement
strategy considerations for low risk projects |
On the other hand, if the proposed project is judged as moderately or highly risky,
the choice becomes more complex. With a flexible business process, a package solution
might still be considered on its merits, but with an inflexible process re-engineering or
renovation is likely to be the choice over a package, particularly for those cases with a
high cost of error. The higher the assessed risk and the higher the cost of an error, the
more likely that the choice will be renovation-generally the most conservative and least
risky technical strategy. Again, it must be emphasized that low risk does not equal no
risk, and steps should be taken to sensibly manage the risks that are present.
|
| Competition
Assessment |
Process
Flexibility Assessment |
Strategy
Bias |
| Application is
competitive asset |
Inflexible |
Renovation |
| |
Moderately flexible |
Renovation or re-engineering |
| |
Very flexible |
Renovation, re-engineering, or
replacement with custom development (only if extensive testing and open ended delivery
schedule are included) |
| Application
is a commodity function |
Inflexible |
Renovation |
| |
Moderately
flexible |
Renovation,
re-engineering or package |
| |
Very flexible |
Package |
|
Strategy
considerations for moderate or high-risk projects |
Finally, we consider how well the application serves the business process. If the
application is doing the job, but there are structural problems in the application, then
we have a bias toward re-engineering or renovation. Structural problems include language,
database, platform, or anything that is part of the infrastructure of the application
implementation rather than its logical design. On the other hand, if the application is no
longer serving the business process very well, requiring significant workarounds and even
manual processing to get the job done, then there are logical problems in the application
and we have a bias toward replacement irrespective of the other issues above.
|
| Alignment Assessment |
Strategy Bias |
| Application aligns well with business
process |
Renovation or re-engineering |
| Application aligns poorly with business
process |
Replacement with package or new development |
|
Application/business
alignment considerations |
|
|
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