Is there legacy code in your product, and does it have all the associated drawbacks? Are apparently basic features seeing an ever-increasing average time to market? Is it becoming more and more difficult to locate developers that are prepared to work with the outdated technology stack that your application is using? Are there a lot of bugs and/or performance problems with your product?

Product owners may be faced with the difficult decision of whether to start over from scratch when these and related issues start to plague them. So, when is it worthwhile to start over when redesigning a legacy application? We'll examine a few factors in this post that will help you decide and ultimately make the best choice. Let's take a moment to define app rewriting before discussing the benefits and drawbacks of starting from scratch.

App rewriting: what is it?

Let's first clarify what project rewriting really entails. To ensure that we are in agreement, this definition is required. Software project rewriting has previously been covered in a large number of papers. Consequently, there are many ways to define what constitutes a rewrite.

There are functional definitions of a partial application rewrite, also known as revamping, reworking, adapting, or porting, and there is the full rewrite, also known as rewriting from scratch. As you can see, the idea of rewriting a software product may soon become unclear.

Here, we'll concentrate on creating a new application from the ground up. Compared to project refactoring, this method has a number of benefits and drawbacks.

For the time being, please remember that I'm talking about a whole redesign of a program, which sometimes nonetheless permits the reuse of certain code segments. As long as the business requirements haven't changed, for instance, it might sometimes be simple to reuse the implementations of different (fully segregated) business use cases or algorithms.

Conversely, project refactoring places a strong emphasis on utilizing the existing code rather to completely replacing it. Depending on your preconceived notions, the distinction between the two is blurry.

Benefits of starting over when rebuilding an app

Quicker iteration

The app architecture is often redesigned as part of the app rebuild. The code should be simple to modify and enhance in the future thanks to the new design. As a consequence, future iterations will be quicker and the feedback loop will be shorter.

Unlimited and quicker development

Using more modern technology will be simpler for developers since they won't be constrained in any way by the current code. This will assist you in ensuring that cutting-edge technology are used in the development of your application. It's not a meaningless, gaudy jargon. The most widely used technologies are new ones. Software developers like staying current with them. If you decide to grow your development staff, you will have additional developers to choose from on the market.

Every product owner of a legacy application is aware of how difficult it may be to locate developers for an outdated framework or language. Aside from that, the bigger and better the community around a technology, the more popular it is. This indicates a greater understanding of how to address the issues and defects that developers encounter. Steer clear of previous errors

The new development team will most likely be able to avoid making the same errors the former developers made, assuming you have put together a team of developers with expertise working on significant rewrites. You must also have complete command of the business domain expertise in order for it to occur.

Changing the app's appearance

You may reconsider the app's general design, components, and optimization by rebuilding it. This is a fantastic chance for you to update your User Journey Map and ensure that each step is self-explanatory to the end user. Keep in mind that a well-designed user experience is one that requires no justification.

Rethinking the features of apps

You get the opportunity to determine what features your product should really have and to confirm if it answers consumers' issues in the most efficient manner. Since you will most likely return the User Journey Map or a document similar to it anyhow, a rewrite is the ideal time to do this.

The dangers of completely changing an application

Helps your rivals

Making the decision to completely redesign the software without simultaneously retaining the previous version is equivalent to handing your rivals a year or two's advantage (for instance, in developing new features). From a business standpoint, it is a significant amount of time. Such inadequate strategic planning has led to the demise of whole enterprises.

Time-consuming

One important resource that will be used up during a rewrite is time. Unless it answers important issues and has a purpose, some of it will be squandered. Some business needs that were previously buried would most likely surface throughout the rewriting process, and more delays might occur.

Also rewrites functional features

The portions of the program that functioned as needed are removed during a rewrite. A rewrite requires developers to re-implement every functionality. This is a significant argument against rewriting when the product will continue to utilize the same technological stack since it is unavoidable when the application is rebuilt in a different language or framework.

Therefore, even perfectly good code will often need to be rebuilt when we are discussing redesigning apps utilizing the same technology. Why? as it probably doesn't work with the new architecture. We would need to employ adapters right away if we left such an outdated piece of code in order for the new architecture to use it. That is concerning since the new architecture shouldn't be controlled by the old code.

There are a few rare exceptions, such as the ability to replicate some mathematical procedures.

Squanders earlier bug fixes

Prior attempts to address bugs are ineffective. Bug fixes may have taken up a significant amount of the project's prior iteration's development time and skill. It's possible that the developers had to overcome problems arising only from the frameworks and technologies they used. Some of the app's issues are always related to the architecture and libraries that are utilized; they wouldn't be noticeable otherwise. It seems as if all of this work was in vain when a full rewrite is undertaken.

Increases the expectations of stakeholders

You must live up to the standards set by your company. When an application has to be rebuilt, stakeholders from all areas of the business will undoubtedly anticipate a return on investment. Better UX/UI design, faster development, better overall product performance, higher user ratings for the app, more user retention, or more new users overall are a few examples. Product owners must control these demands. Convincing the stakeholders that the cake is worth the candle will be your responsibility.

When would it be a mistake to rewrite a legacy application?

It may seem appropriate to persuade the client to start again when a new team sees the project code that has been passed down to them. Just so you know, it's not always the greatest choice for the app owner.

Furthermore, it is seldom a smart idea to rewrite an app using the same development team that created the original version. Let's say that the developers accrued excessive technical debt for a variety of reasons (such as tight deadlines or a lack of experienced developers). The business most obviously shouldn't do a whole overhaul if this were the only reason.

It indicates that you don't have dependable procedures if the developers request a rewrite choice just to get out of the mess they are responsible for (among other things). Every app owner should be aware that giving the team a clean slate without first figuring out the root cause of the issues and maybe reorganizing organizational procedures will probably result in the same outcome—creeping technical debt.

A lot relies on the industry cycle of activity, even if you are certain that you have an excellent team of engineers. If your rivals are putting a lot of pressure on you, you shouldn't try to rewrite. Selecting a full rewrite will result in a prolonged halt to the release of new features.

Unless, of course, you have the time and means to simultaneously maintain the present version of the product while doing a rewrite. Your time to the market measure will be crucial if your company targets a certain market niche. In this situation, you should use every resource at your disposal to ensure that you can get the required portion of the market cake.

Verify the background of a possible development team before rewriting your software.

As previously said, the most important factor in rebuilding an app from the ground up is ensuring that the assigned team can meet the requirements. Ideally, you want to learn a little bit about the developers' origins, identities, and general experience. Developers' private Github repositories or professional social networking sites like LinkedIn are good places to get such information.

This is made considerably simpler if you choose to work with a software development firm. A business that values openness with its customers would be happy to provide you some of these facts. For instance, you may get analytics on customer satisfaction or information about the projects in which the particular developers worked.

Because many of the projects are produced under strong non-disclosure agreements, you may not be able to get the precise product names.

There are many different types of projects that need to be redone. A group of qualified software engineers will be significantly more beneficial to you if you have a big, complicated product.

In the long run, hiring seasoned engineers with prior experience working on projects involving intricate domains and large codebases is just worth the additional money. By asking you insightful questions and guiding you through the process of gathering business requirements, these seasoned experts can help you rapidly understand the nuances of your industry.

Ensure that the team is aware of your future goals and any new features. Everyone knows that this isn't always possible. Or not quite, anyhow. Having said that, I'm not attempting to persuade anybody to return to the Waterfall paradigm, which was a huge mistake for IT projects.

The problem is, if you understand and present a nearly full set of features, have a rough product roadmap, understand your domain from a business perspective, and maybe even have a customer journey map.

For developers and those in charge of selecting the best architectural patterns, it will greatly simplify things. Future coding will be less complicated if you are aware of the intended functionality of the product up front. Once again, we are discussing the outcome of a well executed Product Design Workshop/Product Discovery, not the waterfall process.

In most cases, a software development company will also provide a service called a Product Design Workshop. This is the perfect chance to share your needs and application vision with the development team. The crew will get sufficient expertise for the next months from a few days of these sessions. You may then attempt, in collaboration with the software developers, to reduce the features to only those that are essential for launching the program (Minimum Viable Product).

At the same time, the developers will already be able to design the architecture thanks to the larger vision that has been offered to them. They will be able to organize it such that adding the new functionality is almost effortless, thus reducing the future impact of old code.

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Conclusion: Benefits and Drawbacks of Rewriting an App from the Ground Up

Rewriting an app from scratch isn't always the best course of action from a commercial standpoint, despite how alluring it may sound to developers and product owners. To ensure that this is what your company needs to succeed, as a product owner, you must take a lot of things into account.

The Benefits and Drawbacks of Rewriting an App from the Ground Up - App Owners' Guide