EOL

In order to deprecate a software solution, you need to understand it, and how the organization and even other pieces of software depend upon it.

That means you need to investigate it. And all the information and knowledge that you invest time and effort in attaining will be useless afterwards since the entire point of this tiring endeavor is to remove the solution itself.

All knowledge obtainment is mentally strenuous. When you build a new system, or take over the responsibility of maintaining a piece of legacy software, everything you learn will be useful for as long as you work on that piece of software. Therefor the investment feels much more meaningful than when you're investing to deprecate.

Yes, you know that this will save cost. And yes, less mess provides a cleaner working environment, which will in turn lead to a more comfortable and agile atmosphere.

Still though, for most, removing stuff is not celebrated with the same vigor as launching something new, adding features, removing bugs or other activities targeted toward living code.

The concept of deprecating an unfamiliar piece of software can therefor be one of the most taxing of software tasks.

Perhaps, if you're lucky enough, you've battled this particularly entangled snake pit pasta long enough to find an exhilarating and devilish joy in your arduous expedition as you work your way towards finally being able to thrust the mighty sword of deprecation into the belly of the beast.

But in my experience, this is often not the case. More often you'll need to remove software that is chugging along mostly by itself, but isn't providing enough income to justify neither a full blown rewrite nor the sporadic maintenance required to keep it working safely.

These are the sleeping dragons. The monsters we live with by pretending they don't exist. Yet deep down we know that one day we'll have to climb that mountain so we can reach the nest and EOL that fire-breathing lizard bastard.

His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy
There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti

03.12.2019