Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
involving the use of new technologies might threaten many jobs or the
established way of working. However, every resistance encountered can-
not be attributed to a “defensive attitude” on the part of those objecting.
Sometimes, engineers have well-founded intuitive fears that they are not
able to articulate well or do not take the trouble to do so. One should
consult those who have been maintaining the system for years, and discuss
whether the new solution will or will not work in one's business envi-
ronment, encouraging a free and frank discussion.
Quite often, the new team of consultants brought in to deliver the
migration takes an absolutely theoretical approach. They would say how
the business processes should be, how supply chain should work, or how
warranty management should be handled. This may be a result of inter-
actions with senior managers who dream of a bright new world, still on
paper. Such managers may not be aware of the many workarounds to
the “official” way of working that actually gets things done. People lower
in the hierarchy who are aware of this might protest too mildly as to be
effective. Such people might even keep quiet, or may want to avoid
attention to the workarounds for fear of getting into trouble. As a manager
or migration analyst, one should not dismiss everything as “self-serving
resistance” on part of the staff; for if one refuses to pay due attention to
such issues, they might show up later in the migration project.
Scoping Migration Projects
Getting a proper inventory of the source system is key. While it is natural
to focus on the application itself, one must keep in mind the auxiliary
assets that are involved in its successful working. These might include
load scripts, batch jobs, backup routines, clean-up routines, and the like.
It also is necessary to ensure identification of all the applications or
systems with which the source is integrated. To give an example, if the
source is using a certain commercial Report Writer to generate its reports,
it needs to be verified that the Report Writer works with the target
technologies. Also look at the versions supported. We know of one case
where the migration team worked with a version of Oracle that was ahead
of what was being supported in the customer's company. This was
unfortunately discovered when they tried to roll the system into produc-
tion. The company refused to upgrade the “corporate” database to a higher
version because of its side effects, leading to the failure of the migration
project. As often happens with legacy applications and the surrounding
environments, one might also feel the need to replace these auxiliary tools
and applications, as their vendors may not have kept up with the industry.
This, naturally, increases the scope of the project.
