Approaches to modernization

There Is No Single Roadmap

It would be nice if every IBM i shop could follow one simple modernization roadmap. That is not how it works.

Several practical factors shape the approach you take:

  • Budget
  • Level of management support
  • The real reason you are modernizing (interface, database, application code, or some mix of all three)
  • Available resources. A shop with a hundred developers faces different constraints from a ten-person team, which in turn is different from a two-person shop
  • The current state of the application. How clean, modular and understandable is the existing code?

Any one of those points can be broken down further. Because requirements, starting points, support levels and resources vary so widely, there are many valid ways to modernize.

Whatever path you choose, keep it flexible. You need enough structure to stay in control, yet enough freedom to adopt useful new techniques without breaking the working core of the system.

Starting can feel overwhelming. Once you accept that the plan will almost certainly change after you begin, it becomes much easier to take the first step.

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