How to Create A Software Modernization Roadmap

Software modernization is key to staying ahead in your industry. Software modernization is key to staying ahead in your industry.

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By Simon Martinelli
14.01.2021

Software modernization is key to staying ahead in your industry.

Software modernization is key to staying ahead in your industry. It improves performance and prevents unexpected lapses in security and productivity. Application modernization roadmaps are a window into the future to manage expectations for budgets, outcomes, timelines, and teams to ensure you have the smoothest transition possible with the best possible results for your modernization project.

We’ve developed a five-stage process for your software modernization journey: Prioritize, Engage, Execute, Modernize, and Optimize. We know all companies are different, so take our roadmap and modify it to suit your organization and process.

1. Prioritize

To start, you need to gather your core team of stakeholders to prioritize your goals and vision for your company. Once you’ve established your goals, select a software modernization service provider, and sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to engage their services.

If your migration is company-wide or will affect multiple departments, have each department director list their priorities for the modernization process. It is also recommended to have departments list the added features they desire and the feature losses they wish to avoid.

Assess for at-Risk Technologies

Negotiate a final migration and maintenance contract with your migration consultant. Have your consultant coordinate with your IT team to assess your network and software for at-risk technologies. These can include applications, processes, and/or hardware with known vulnerabilities. Add these recommendations to your migration plan.

Draft Your Budget

Once you’ve established goals and priorities and collected preliminary data, draft a general budget based on your goals and the modernization consultant’s pricing expectations. If you need funding from departments, make plans for how you’ll manage financial sourcing budgets and timelines.

Recommend priority

List your focus outcomes and priorities. Say you want faster software performance, or a more advanced ticketing system– list those as your top priorities. It is also helpful to list the features of your software that you do not wish to change. It is just as important to upgrade as it is to maintain core features that are essential to the productivity of your company. Each department is likely to have its own set of priorities. You will have to negotiate with your departments and decide which will take precedence.

2. Engage

The engagement phase is when you get to research, plan, and staff your project execution teams. It is important to implement this phase carefully, as it sets the stage for the success of deploying your new application(s).

Detail Your Plan

Based on your vision, surveys, and initial status assessments, and budget, develop a plan and a timeline with your core team. Your consultant should advise your team on expected timelines based on their experience.

Notify Impacted Departments

Notify the impacted departments of changes to come. Share the benefits that the change will make. Give a generous timeline for when you’ll need their engagement. Let them know ways in which you’re asking for their support and participation.

Review Infrastructure

Your consultant and IT department will review your infrastructure and how it affects the modernization project. They will propose any updates and changes as necessary.

Staff Project Team

Staff your project team that will be executing and giving access to third party providers. Establish roles in the project and make sure everyone is aware of privileges and milestones. Once you have staffed your project team, draft your testing plans, and prepare for execution.

3. Execute

After reviewing your final plans for execution prepare to take action.

Pilot Test

This step verifies a core part of the system or the entire system under real-time operating conditions. At this point, your testing team will want to document workflows, errors, and any bugs they encounter. They should be set up to report issues back to the project team to fix.

Deploy

Once all major bugs and errors have been addressed and fixed, the team should be ready to deploy the software across the network and test again.

Integrate Application

Once the application is live across the network, you can begin to integrate and test it alongside your other systems. If any major bugs or issues arise, document them and have your consultant address them.

4. Modernize

At this point, your IT consultant should be highly available for support in case new issues arise. Once the new system is running well and all databases are backed up and transferred, the modernization consultant will decommission any obsolete or at-risk technologies.

5. Optimize

Work with your consultant to improve the functionality and user experience of the software, so that it is fully optimized. Configure settings to best serve users and work on any remaining bugs that the software may have. Continue to monitor the software for issues.

Train Staff

Schedule staff training so they will able to use the software effectively and efficiently. Record any feedback they may have.

With this roadmap, you can prepare yourself and your team to make the most of your software modernization. 72® Services works with many clients on roadmapping and executing a wide variety of modernization projects.

Simon Martinelli
Simon Martinelli
Programming Architect at 72® Services
Simon Martinelli ist ein versierter Experte für Java, Leistungsoptimierung, Anwendungsintegration, Softwarearchitektur und Systemdesign mit 27 Jahren Erfahrung als Entwickler, Architekt und technischer Projektmanager. Kontaktieren Sie mich hier oder buchen Sie einen Beratungstermin über Calendly.
Simon Martinelli
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Simon Martinelli
Programming Architect 72® Services
Simon Martinelli is an accomplished expert in Java, performance optimization, application integration, software architecture and system design with 27 years of experience as a developer, architect and technical project manager. Contact me here or book a consulting appointment via Calendly.