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"legacy application in the primary healthcare domain" <-- there are specific reasons why it is preferred to keep with the legacy platform. A lot of effort has

by veyron 15y ago

"legacy application in the primary healthcare domain" <-- there are specific reasons why it is preferred to keep with the legacy platform. A lot of effort has been spent to make the system compliant with existing regulations. And switching to a new technology platform isn't a willy-nilly decision. Ask the CTO about the regulatory and other aspects of the platform. For all we know, he may believe that more time will be spent vetting a new platform than would be spent augmenting an existing platform. "He's aware that the existing platform has a number of problems" <-- in response to another poster, the CTO is aware of the level of garbage. When you work as a manager on a system like in health care, you have to worry first and foremost about the business.

squidsoup 15y ago
There is no regulatory framework for health IT systems in my country analogous to HIPPA in the US, nor is the system standards compliant in any way. We have some national health IT standards but we've not invested any effort to make our platform compliant.
- veyron 15y ago
  Do you have any estimate as to how long it would take to rebuild the platform and shake down the bugs (to the extent that the existing platform functions)? I ask because, if you try to look at it from the other side, it may actually take much longer to rebuild than to patch. If that time is short, maybe you should try to do it on your downtime :)
  - squidsoup 15y ago
    It would take a long time to rebuild, certainly over a year. I'm not even certain how we could approach refactoring the existing system without unit tests - classic asp is very primitive. I'm aware that rewriting systems is a big business risk, but I think we have reached a point where maintaining and developing new services on classic asp is a greater risk to the viability of the company.
    - veyron 15y ago
      "It would take a long time to rebuild, certainly over a year. " <-- is there any way to make incremental changes to a new platform? By that I mean breaking down the transition process into small steps that can be completed one man-week at a time? If not, how well-staffed is your firm? Is it sufficiently well-staffed that some people could dedicate their time to migrating the entire platform?

by veyron 15y ago

squidsoup 15y ago

There is no regulatory framework for health IT systems in my country analogous to HIPPA in the US, nor is the system standards compliant in any way. We have some national health IT standards but we've not invested any effort to make our platform compliant.

veyron 15y ago
Do you have any estimate as to how long it would take to rebuild the platform and shake down the bugs (to the extent that the existing platform functions)? I ask because, if you try to look at it from the other side, it may actually take much longer to rebuild than to patch. If that time is short, maybe you should try to do it on your downtime :)
- squidsoup 15y ago
  It would take a long time to rebuild, certainly over a year. I'm not even certain how we could approach refactoring the existing system without unit tests - classic asp is very primitive. I'm aware that rewriting systems is a big business risk, but I think we have reached a point where maintaining and developing new services on classic asp is a greater risk to the viability of the company.
  - veyron 15y ago
    "It would take a long time to rebuild, certainly over a year. " <-- is there any way to make incremental changes to a new platform? By that I mean breaking down the transition process into small steps that can be completed one man-week at a time? If not, how well-staffed is your firm? Is it sufficiently well-staffed that some people could dedicate their time to migrating the entire platform?