Before investment
Establish whether the proposed direction is grounded in the application that actually exists.
Application modernisation assessment
Assess the application before choosing the modernisation path.
A modernisation assessment should improve the decision, not just produce a score.
Harten establishes the current application, the behaviour that matters, the risks that need resolving and the evidence required before architecture and delivery commitments harden.
The decision
Modernise, replace, retain or sequence differently?
The answer depends on more than technology age. Business behaviour, dependencies, data, operational constraints and unresolved risk all affect the path.
During a programme
Revisit assumptions when scope, estimates or target architecture rely on an incomplete baseline.
What the assessment produces
Evidence for the next investment and architecture decision.
The exact scope is agreed for the application. A later delivery phase is not implied by the assessment.
Current application
A reviewable account of behaviour, dependencies, data relationships and material uncertainty.
Specification baseline
What needs to be preserved, deliberately changed or resolved before implementation.
Proposed plan
Target options, dependencies, delivery slices, migration, rollback and verification requirements for review.
What it does not prove
A proposed plan is not a completed transformation.
- No automatic target: architecture follows the application and customer constraints.
- No hidden approval: generated recommendations remain proposals until reviewed.
- No migration claim: implementation and production outcomes need separate evidence.
- Human authority: the customer retains the decision on priorities, risk and release.
A bounded starting point
Begin with one application and one decision.
That keeps the assessment useful: a clear boundary, known reviewers, explicit evidence and a decision the work must support.