Today it was necessary to decide not to update a set of code in order to make it backwards-compatible with a new system. The estimate to fix the code was 3 weeks. The work to fix this at the source had been done. That took care of 98% of the issue. It wasn’t a hard decision to not invest the 3 weeks and fix the remaining 2% at the source.
I had my doubts about not investing the time, however. Oh, it was clear that I was inviting legacy to make a home in the code, but it’s nice to say we’re “backwards compatible”. I’m glad I made the decision the way I did. I’m glad I asked the questions I asked in order to get a clear picture. I’m glad I “abandoned” the work and had the resource move on to other things.
My “Drucker” reading for today talked about “abandonment” in mostly the same context. From a business point of view we need to be able to shake off the unproductive/unnecessary work and systems and position our best resources in work that invites new growth/opportunities. Applied to the larger company we need to make sure that we purposefully abandon outdated activity before its resource consumption disables new growth.
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