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Divide and conquer: transforming your legacy applications one bite at a time (continued)
FIGURE D
 
New features and functions are added alongside the new facade. Roll over picture for a larger image.
Piece by piece, function by function, your team of developers can slowly transform your system from what it is today to your ultimate vision of the future, delivering products as they are produced, constantly adapting to changes and feedback as the process unfolds.
Think big, act small
Sun Tzu, author of the 2500 year-old classic The Art of War, claimed that opportunities multiply as they are seized. Nowhere is this more apparent than when building applications with reusable components. With a clear understanding of the vision, concept, and strategy, each developer will create potential building blocks for future features and functions with every assignment. The more of such building blocks there are in your component library, the faster you can assemble and deliver features and functions to the end user. This process simply builds momentum as it proceeds. The trick is to ensure that the development team keeps the global vision in mind while focusing on the specific task at hand.
If I had to write a cookbook methodology for developing new or replacement information systems applications, it would simply be this: start with a clear vision founded on best practices; embrace a consistent strategy (also founded on best practices); break things up into manageable pieces; put the best people you can find on your development team; equip them with the best tools and techniques; motivate them, educate them, and train them (in that order!); and then get out of their way. Small projects create quick successes and produce immediate feedback, which can only add to your ultimate goal, which should be to provide the end user with the best possible, most reliable information system available. If your goal is to spend lots of money, then by all means, the Big Bang approach is the way to go. But if you want results, you just can't beat taking things one small step at a time.
Product availability and resources
For the article, "Stairway to excellence: the incremental process improvement methodology," by Jeff Chilton in the December 2002 issue of DominoPower, visit http://www.dominopower.com/issues/issue200212/stairway001.html.
Easy, flexible article reprints
ZATZ now offers a quick, easy, flexible and inexpensive way to use article reprints in your marketing and promotion efforts. You can now get article reprints for a one-time fee of only $200. For details, visit http://mediakit.zatz.com/reprints.
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Bart Myers is an e-Business Specialist. He can be reached via email at bmyers1@us.ibm.com.
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