The business landscape is littered with the carcasses of companies that refused or failed to adapt to change. The last Blockbuster Video standing in Bend, Oregon is a stark monument to how quickly that fate can lock in and ruin a company and pave the way for more agile and forward-looking companies.
The kicker: Netflix, largely responsible for Blockbuster’s eventual decline, is having a rough time of its own, with its stock price down half from recent highs.
The good news is, for most companies, outdated technology doesn’t have to lead down a path to extinction, even in a digital landscape that’s evolving at a dizzying pace.
This includes companies running on legacy code. Now more than ever, companies that run their mission-critical applications on legacy code realize that they need to modernize to remain competitive.
However, assessing legacy code to build a modernization plan can be daunting. With long histories, often measured in decades, legacy systems are notoriously complex and challenging to navigate and maintain.
There are numerous modernization case studies to draw from to sketch out a set of best practices to follow when assessing legacy code to build a modernization plan.
Here, we’ll focus on the role of impact analysis and how our CM evolveIT solution can bring costs down and get you to an assessment much more quickly than with a manual evaluation.
The Role of Impact Analysis in Assessing Legacy Code
One of your most potent assets to assess legacy code for a modernization project is conducting an impact analysis.
An impact analysis will help you understand how a modernization plan will affect your codebase and reveal the risks and opportunities that lie within. Your impact analysis should include a comprehensive review of the codebase, including an evaluation of the code’s structure, dependencies, and interactions with other components.
Your impact analysis should also consider your organization’s business objectives and identify the areas of the codebase that are critical to achieving those objectives. This will become your modernization plan’s north star.
The Importance of Best Practices for Assessing Legacy Code with an Impact Analysis
Your best chance of success when assessing your legacy code with an impact analysis is rooted in three primary best practices:
Use a Structured Approach
A structured approach to impact analysis will ensure you’ll have a comprehensive understanding of your codebase when your research is complete. At that point, you’ll be in a rock-solid position to identify potential risks and opportunities associated with your modernization effort.
In “Modernizing Legacy Systems: Software Technologies, Engineering Processes, and Business Practices,” Robert C. Seacord validates the importance of a structured approach to impact analysis and highlights the potential benefits of modernization in improving business agility and scalability.
Leverage Tools and Automation
Automated tools and technologies, such as CM evolveIT, can reduce the time and cost associated with manual analysis and ensure that assessments are accurate and comprehensive. But study wisely before choosing your “Impact Analysis Stack.” You’ll be glad you did when you’re in the thick of your modernization project.
Use a Granular Approach to Modernization
If your organization has a large and complex system, as legacy systems often do, consider breaking that system down into smaller parts and focus your plan on tackling them independently to the extent possible.
The Role of CM evolveIT
CM evolveIT can play a critical role in assessing your legacy code, providing you with high-impact tools to help you identify, extract and re-engineer individual components of your legacy system before migrating them to a modern platform.
Compared to a manual analysis, the automation tools within the CM evolveIT solution will save time, reduce costs and ensure that your modernization efforts are aligned with your company’s business objectives.
In conclusion, assessing legacy code to prepare for a modernization effort is a big job but a needed one in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. If you pick your tools wisely, leverage automation, and take a
Contact CM First today to learn more about how our CM evolveIT software can help you modernize your systems, reduce costs, and improve efficiency.
