Michael Blechar

I recently recalled a funny family story from when I was about 8 years old. It was around Christmas time and my extended family had gathered together at an aunt’s house in Long Island New York to celebrate the holidays. My aunts and uncles started partying in the early afternoon, so by dinner time many had imbibed a bit too much alcohol (we the kids, of course, only had soda) when someone got the idea to drive the the train station to pick up a family friend, Leslie, who happened to be returning from work that evening. So, one relatively sober member of the clan packed about 6 people into a small convertible and drove the 20 minutes to the station to meet the train. One of my other uncles suddenly realized that there would be no room for Leslie in the convertible, so he hopped in a much larger second car with 3 of us kids and drove to the station so Leslie could ride back in the second car with us in comfort.

When we got to the station the train had not yet arrived and I still recall seeing the adults in the first car (having finally come to the realization that they could not fit 7 adults in the small car they had taken) trying to see if my Aunt Flo could fit in the car trunk for the ride home! As his train pulled in, there were chants of “Leslie!, Leslie!” and this rather reserved man sheepishly got off the train to all this fanfare with a smile on his face and was ushered to the second car where my uncle quickly drive him away – leaving now 6 adults and 3 children to get back home in the small convertible! P.S. We made it back in one trip with the 3 kids sitting on the laps of 3 adults wedged into the back seat while an adult road on the lap of an adult in the front….

And then another related ludicrous image jumped into my mind. In the National Lampoon movie “Vacation”, a grandmother who has died in a remote area is discovered by the vacationing family members and is strapped to the roof of the crowded family car to be able to get the body back to civilization. Like trying to fit my aunt in the trunk of the car, this image of adapting to change by strapping the dead grandmother to the roof is a lot like what we see customers doing with SOA. Legacy applications, like the car, designed for current needs having new web browsers and business workflows “strapped on their hoods” to expedite change but in a totally unplanned and haphazard way.

This is not to say that legacy extension is a bad thing. Leveraging existing legacy assets, especially data assets, is to be highly recommended whenever it makes sense. The value to the business units in terms of speed/agility of implementing new solutions can be extremely beneficial. But at the same time, this raises the bar for their expectations that IT can be this responsive/productive/agile for all future requests – which is generally not the case, especially as process or data need to change. And, in fact, legacy extension generally adds cost and complexity to the maintenance of existing applications (and, in fact, creates more legacy to me maintained).

So is strapping grandma to the roof of the car a bad practice to always be avoided? No. But it should be done understanding the opportunities and risks as part of a long-term solution architecture transition strategy. Increasingly this will include indentifying legacy code, transaction and data for potential reuse as covered by my colleagues Dale Vecchio (see “Mainframe Modernization: When Migration Is the Answer*” and “Mainframe Modernization: When Platform Is the Solution*”),and Andrew White and John Radcliffe (see “Mastering Master Data Management*”) – as well as the building of new software and data services as part of the topic of service-oriented development (SODA) which I cover (see below). The emerging role of the application/solution architect (see “Defining the Discipline of Application Architecture*”) to do cross-project planning and design of application and data is critical in making the right decisions as part of a migration/transition strategy.

Or else be prepared for the run of sales on roof racks at your local car parts distributor and some rather unsightly car trips!

Related research includes:
“Revisiting The Definition and Realities of SODA*, ”The Role Of SW Components and Building Blocks in AD*”, “Use Component-Based Development Methods to Maximize SOA Success*” and “Software As A Service Component Development Challenges*”.

*Available to Gartner clients or for a fee

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