Talk Abstract
As scale-up companies experience rapid growth and expansion, their once nimble and efficient startup codebase can often become a hindrance to further scalability and innovation. Re-platforming is often the solution — but this presents a formidable challenge.
In this talk I discussed the complexities of successfully re-platforming for scale-ups, highlighting the issues posed by legacy code and providing practical insights to navigate this intricate journey.
Key Takeaways
1. Timing Matters More Than Technology
The decision of when to re-platform is more critical than what to re-platform onto. Too early and you’re solving problems you don’t have yet. Too late and technical debt compounds into organisational drag.
2. Dual-Running Is Expensive But Necessary
There’s no clean cut-over for a live product serving millions of customers. Plan for a period of dual-running and make sure the cost of that is visible to stakeholders from day one.
3. Protect Team Morale
Re-platforming is a marathon. The excitement of “building it properly” wears off around month four. Having clear milestones, celebrating incremental wins, and rotating people between new-build and maintenance work keeps energy levels sustainable.
4. Measure Migration, Not Just Delivery
Standard delivery metrics (velocity, cycle time) don’t capture re-platforming progress well. Introduce migration-specific metrics: percentage of traffic on new platform, dual-running cost, number of legacy dependencies removed.