Great post. Totally agree that there is so much nuance to this "debate" and that the simple advice of "just don't do it" is kind of ridiculous. How big is the system? Are there developers who can pull off a rewrite? Will the customers stick around? And so on. All these are important factors to consider.
Also, great point on the notions of success. For a developer, success might be to work with a new technology/platform, to get rid of tech debt, to create and not maintain, etc....things that are not really aligned with success for the business which sees the software as a vehicle for revenue/operational efficiency/etc. This point inspired me to write a post on this - "why we rewrite (even when we shouldn't)".
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Great post. Totally agree that there is so much nuance to this "debate" and that the simple advice of "just don't do it" is kind of ridiculous. How big is the system? Are there developers who can pull off a rewrite? Will the customers stick around? And so on. All these are important factors to consider.
Also, great point on the notions of success. For a developer, success might be to work with a new technology/platform, to get rid of tech debt, to create and not maintain, etc....things that are not really aligned with success for the business which sees the software as a vehicle for revenue/operational efficiency/etc. This point inspired me to write a post on this - "why we rewrite (even when we shouldn't)".
bennorthrop.com/rewrite-or-refacto...
Anyway, thanks for the great post.
Sorry for the slow reply, Benjamin. I failed to get a notification of your comment.
Thanks for your kind words. I took a look at your link and the chapters before it. Great stuff. Lots of "human factors" as the pilots would call it.