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254 Chapter 9 Software evolution

4. High quality, high business value These systems have to be kept in operation.
However, their high quality means that you don’t have to invest in transforma-
tion or system replacement. Normal system maintenance should be continued.

To assess the business value of a system, you have to identify system stakehold-
ers, such as end-users of the system and their managers, and ask a series of questions
about the system. There are four basic issues that you have to discuss:

1. The use of the system If systems are only used occasionally or by a small num-
ber of people, they may have a low business value. A legacy system may have
been developed to meet a business need that has either changed or that can now
be met more effectively in other ways. You have to be careful, however, about
occasional but important use of systems. For example, in a university, a student
registration system may only be used at the beginning of each academic year.
However, it is an essential system with a high business value.
2. The business processes that are supported When a system is introduced, busi-
ness processes are designed to exploit the system’s capabilities. If the system is
inflexible, changing these business processes may be impossible. However, as
the environment changes, the original business processes may become obsolete.
Therefore, a system may have a low business value because it forces the use of
inefficient business processes.
3. The system dependability System dependability is not only a technical problem
but also a business problem. If a system is not dependable and the problems
directly affect the business customers or mean that people in the business are
diverted from other tasks to solve these problems, the system has a low business
value.
4. The system outputs The key issue here is the importance of the system outputs to
the successful functioning of the business. If the business depends on these out-
puts, then the system has a high business value. Conversely, if these outputs can
be easily generated in some other way or if the system produces outputs that are
rarely used, then its business value may be low.

For example, let’s assume that a company provides a travel ordering system that
is used by staff responsible for arranging travel. They can place orders with an
approved travel agent. Tickets are then delivered and the company is invoiced for
these. However, a business value assessment may reveal that this system is only used
for a fairly small percentage of travel orders placed. People making travel arrange-
ments find it cheaper and more convenient to deal directly with travel suppliers
through their websites. This system may still be used, but there is no real point in
keeping it. The same functionality is available from external systems.
Conversely, say a company has developed a system that keeps track of all previ-
ous customer orders and automatically generates reminders for customers to reorder
goods. This results in a large number of repeat orders and keeps customers satisfied