Lazycoder

The Big Rewrite – Know when to quit

Have a drop dead date. Know when to quit.

This may sound like a bad idea at first, but in my experience you have to know when a project isn’t going well and when to put it out of your misery. You should be able to honestly evaluate your progress during the rewrite and compare it to your goals. Many rewrites turn into death marches. You should document the existing applications functionality. Make a list of what functionality has to be present in the new application for it to be considered a success. If you need to take a phased approach and prioritize the functionality into releases, so be it. In the case of a rewrite, the evaluation needs to start early and happen often. If you get too far out into the weeds, you may feel obligated to keep trudging along on the death march. Ironically, this is what often drives people to keep beating a dead horse rather than attempting a rewrite.