Never EVER "redesign the whole system from scratch". There are years (usually) of history documented in code in a legacy system. I've heard this over and over

Never EVER "redesign the whole system from scratch". There are years (usually) of history documented in code in a legacy system. I've heard this over and over and have experience with projects where this was attempted. It's never gone well. "...the single worst strategic mistake that any software company can make: They decided to rewrite the code from scratch." -Joel Spolsky http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html Also read: http://timross.wordpress.com/2010/03/15/if-you-must-rewrite/ http://timross.wordpress.com/2010/03/15/if-you-must-rewrite/