Migrating the Migration…
No, I’m not talking about the geese flying South… but close!.. Ever worked in a development shop that never seems to find a destination?… I have..
Yes change does occur, and should, as new technologies present themselves and we have opporunity to benefit from increased efficiency and productivity but at what cost?
We recently just finished a mass port of some of our applications from a cold fusion platform to a J2EE environment. Overall I say the migration was moderate. Really good from the standpoint we actually are live with the new platform in production (one of the first ports I ever seen successfully launch on time), bad from the horrible lack of design / standards that the framework is built. Yet, what have learned from this?.. much I would say. We now know some of the underlying problems with our framework and we see many places we can improve. What I find interesting is that despite the huge investment in training, education and the like in getting us to the new platform.. now that we are live and facing some challenges, first thing that always gets re-evaluated in the technology itself.
Already there is talk that maybe we are not using the correct technologies for the job… and maybe thats the case. But why are tech shops so quick to want to cut and run instead of investigating ways to improve the current foundations?
I imagine a year from now we’ll have yet another platform running, we’ll now be stuck maintaining cf, j2ee and platform x all simultaneously.. and how much do you want to wager that the new platform will just as many underlying flaws that we have not yet uncovered?.. Are the productivity gains really enough to warrant such an effort?…hmpf… probably not.. but then again.. I’m just a developer so what do I know….
Maybe its time to fly south west?…
October 19th, 2006 at 5:12 pm
In response to the ‘Are the productivity gains really enough to warrant such an effort?…hmpf… probably not,’ you’re answer might be found here…
http://martinfowler.com/bliki/ImprovementRavine.html
October 19th, 2006 at 8:31 pm
Ahh and with this article I completely agree. But thats not to say improving yourself and your techniques means, quick, lets jump on the next technology bandwagon because it must be better. Heck, I love to play with new technologies and if your going to survive in the technology space, its your job. However, you still must weigh the pros and cons of what the new approach brings to the table and decide if it truly will allow you to more efficiently solve the problem. All I’m saying is that quite frequently things look ‘greener’… only until you’ve laid the sod and find the roots are rotting! Besides, it could also be that maybe all we needed was a little fertilizer….