Developer Familiarity is Key to Digital Success

For some time, the goal of digital transformation was to replace legacy systems. It became a battle between all that was new and shiny and that which was old, outdated and “had to go.” However, this philosophy has since shifted as companies realized two crucial facts.

First, legacy systems are often too important to be phased out entirely for traditional organizations—given SQL’s flexibility and familiarity among developers, for example. As a result, many of these legacy applications and systems are instead being converted into virtual versions of their former selves.

Also, while it’s not impossible for some organizations to reinvent themselves as greenfield businesses that rely entirely on new, cutting-edge technologies, that is a route that is usually resource-intensive and time-consuming for many companies, at least for the foreseeable future.

Second, tossing out legacy systems disrupts existing skills—and not in a good way—especially given that 64% of digital architects report being locked into using them because they have invested heavily in the relevant skills. Furthermore, overtly focusing on new talent excludes many IT professionals with well-honed skills and considerable knowledge about business processes and systems relationships. And, at the same time, digital skills are expensive—not just to acquire but also to upskill. Even startups—which often have a literal “system blank check”—are facing skills constraints, and many are considering bringing more established skills into emerging tech environments.

The Developer Skills Problem

Digital transformation is now in the spotlight thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, and project managers have consequently accrued valuable experience on what makes transformation projects successful. Recent surveys conducted by 451 Research revealed that 44% of companies are well into the execution stages of their transformation strategies and of that group, 66% are starting to see success. Another 10% declared their transformation projects to be a complete success.

Archimedes said he could move the planet with a sufficiently large lever. For digital transformation goals, skills are that tectonic lever. According to a report from WorldSkills UK, 60% of businesses believe that their reliance on advanced digital skills will increase. Pressure relating to skills requirements is not going anywhere, and the competition between legacy and new technologies only compounds it further.

As you might expect, developers are caught in the middle. As the world digitizes—witness the acceleration of digital projects over the past two years—developers have emerged as the heroes. Perhaps unsurprisingly, 92% of respondents to a Couchbase survey agreed with that statement. Around 63% also revealed that a proper development culture allowed them the flexibility to change their goals pertaining to digital transformation outcomes.

Yet whenever digital projects get stuck, developers are often blamed for the delays. According to the same research, at least one-fifth of developers do not have the skills or access to technology that they need. Many also aren’t given the support or space to deliver and an astounding 49% say they are being asked to do too much in too little time.

Digital transformation projects have been increasingly successful, and we can thank developers for much of that success. But those successes haven’t alleviated the pressures or problems surrounding skills, and many projects consequently still get stuck. Furthermore, a recent report by Gartner found that IT executives are struggling to source skills that enable cloud and edge adoption.

Legacy is Not the Enemy

If we combine these points (the need for continual support for legacy, emerging modernization demands, increasing developer skills shortages and the fate of established technology experts), they appear to be at odds with each other. Something must give, right?

Not necessarily. There is growing acknowledgment that orphaning legacy skills is a mistake. Doing so can cannibalize skill sets and business knowledge that should be retained. There’s also the realization that we don’t need to juxtapose legacy and newer technologies. Modern systems can incorporate and even absorb legacy environments, coding languages and processes.

Modern multi-model databases provide a good example. At a high level, we can group databases into relational (SQL) and non-relational (NoSQL) systems. SQL databases cannot provide the agility NoSQL systems are known for, yet it’s a technology approach that still delivers many benefits. Multi-model database systems, where a SQL developer can use SQL coding on a NoSQL system, accomplish both.

A New Place for Established Developer Skills

Creating this familiarity is essential for successful digital projects. Focusing exclusively on broad reskilling or continually hunting for new talent aren’t the only ways to meet the demands required by modern enterprises. Instead of asking if developers can go to the mountain, vendors should ask: Can we bring the mountain to the developers?

Deploying new technologies that can leverage existing developer skills is becoming increasingly popular. Besides certain databases, we also see this with mainframes connected to web services via APIs and using microservices to accentuate specific parts of legacy environments.

Consider Lehman’s famous laws of software evolution, among which are familiarity and organizational stability. Most modernization projects ignore these two laws in favor of brute force progress. But digital modernization is a journey, and every successful journey needs all hands on deck—not dead weight and stowaways. Providing developers that which they already know best in a new environment is the key to digital success.