These profiles are part of the Modernization Readiness Boot Camp series, and outline the roles you’ll need to fill in order to start a successful application modernization project. Do you have the right people on your team?
Product Owner
Where do you find your Product Owner?
A strong project owner is typically someone who comes from in-house. They have to know the business. When you bring someone in from the outside, it will take time to ramp them up. A product owner could also be sniped from a competitor. They can lured to your organization to create new opportunities within that market.
Architect
Where do you find your Architect?
A good architect can come from technology shops or other companies where they worked with new and modern tech. Or, you can bring in an experienced architect from a trust digital transformation vendor. However, your architect can’t be a guy with experience with old tech; they won’t be able to create modern solutions. If you’re trying to get ahead, you need someone who can stay ahead.
Legacy System Experts
Where do you find legacy system experts?
Transforming old business processes, the technical architecture may be done in such a way that doesn’t make sense to new technical leads. They might make the mistake of trying to scrap the whole thing. Legacy system experts will be able to reuse what’s been done in the past. In-house experts come from years of working within the business, working closely with the systems. Additionally, legacy system expert vendors will bring years of expertise and tools to help analyze legacy system code.
SCRUM Master
Where do you find your SCRUM master?
They’re Agile experts, so you can most likely find them through Agile certification programs. You can also recruit them from other organizations or vendors where they’ve served as project leads.
Technologists
Where do you find technologists?
Recruit them from college, other development companies, or tech agencies. Consulting firms are a stepping stone, and many technologies want in-house gigs. They gain a lot of valuable experience from consulting firms and will often have experience in a variety of industries.
Contractors
Where do you find contractors?
Freelance sites like Upwork have made it easier than ever to find contractors to fill out your modernization dream team.
TIP: Remember Stakeholder Management
You’ll need the right combination of leadership to keep the project on the rails. This can be a combo of the Product Owner and SCRUM master working together to handle communications and direction from stakeholders. They’ll need to be adept at directing the flow of information and making adjustments to the project as needed.