Leaving a Legacy...System - The Passionate Programmer

Thoughts on tomorrow's @aloharubyconf talk:

Ever since reading David Heinemeir Hansson’s post Enterprise Is the New Legacy over five years ago, I’ve been chewing on something. The gist of the post was that “enterprise” is and should be a bad word, just like “legacy”. But why is “legacy” a bad word to begin with? The word makes most software developers and IT people ill. In other fields and in life in general, the word “legacy” isn’t thusly encumbered. It refers to an inheritance left to those behind you. Your life’s work. Your essential story. In software, that story is assumed to be a tragedy. But even in the case of software, “legacy” is an indication of success. Sure, old software was written with old technology. And most software (or indeed most things created by humans) has its share of warts and dark corners. But the fact that we refer to a piece of software as “legacy” indicates that it was successful enough ...

Full article: http://chadfowler.com/2011/03/17/leaving-a-legacy-system