Summary of Legacy Systems & Digital Transformations • Ian Cartwright, Rob Horn & Hannes Lowette • GOTO 2022

00:00:00 - 00:30:00

This video discusses how businesses can transition to digital transformations, and how to overcome some of the challenges they may face. The speaker recommends involving the business in all decisions, and using technology to help facilitate the transition. They also recommend reading Martin Fowler's website for more information on how to implement transformations.

• 00:00:00 This video discusses legacy systems and digital transformations, and discusses how businesses usually justify implementing legacy systems. Legacy systems can be defined in a variety of ways, but they are usually technologies that a company no longer uses or can't afford to maintain. Businesses usually justify legacy system replacement by citing business needs such as innovation, risk mitigation, and cost.
• 00:05:00 Legacy systems and digital transformations can be risky, and feature parity is one of the anti-patterns that can cause trouble. When undertaking such a project, it is important to use archaeology to understand the business' requirements and to keep the business' needs in mind when designing the replacement system.
• 00:10:00 According to the speaker, legacy systems and digital transformations can be difficult to manage, and delivery of new functionality can be slower and more expensive than desired. To overcome this problem, he recommends starting the legacy displacement project from the beginning and using incremental delivery to show value incrementality. This can be difficult to do with the business stakeholders in the room, and often requires breaking the problem down into smaller pieces and integrating the old and new systems in a way that is transparent to the user.
• 00:15:00 This video discusses how legacy systems and digital transformations can work together to create an incremental, user-friendly experience for customers. The business owner needs to be involved in the decision-making process to ensure that any compromises made are fair. Additionally, the analyst can help translate the business owner's needs into technical terms.
• 00:20:00 This video discusses the challenges businesses face when trying to transition to a digital transformation and how technology can help mitigate some of these challenges. The presenter also discusses the idea of citizen developers and how they can help facilitate the transition.
• 00:25:00 The speaker discusses how legacy systems and digital transformations can lead to frustration with IT and how collaboration between business and IT can help reduce this friction. He also mentions that legacy systems may still need to be supported, even if they are no longer profitable or used by many users, and that cost should be a part of the conversation when deciding whether to migrate to a new system.
• 00:30:00 The speaker talks about the importance of celebrating success and the need to involve the business in all transformations. He also recommends reading Martin Fowler's website for more information on how to implement transformations.