The scorecard sorts 21 statements into five areas and scores each answer: Not true 0, Partly 1, Mostly 2, Fully true 3. “Don’t know” is left out of the math and listed in your report under “To find out”.
- Value (4 statements): is it still worth keeping?
- Pressure (5): how much does it hurt the people using it today?
- Technical risk (5): how fragile is it underneath? Unsupported platform, code only one person understands, no staging copy, security updates you can’t apply, untested backups.
- Data (2 scored): do you know where its data lives, and is it reasonably clean? A third statement, whether other systems or reports read its database directly, only raises a flag.
- Readiness (4): are you set up to change it?
The formulas
- Area score = average of your numeric answers ÷ 3 × 100, so each area runs from 0 to 100.
- If fewer than half of an area’s statements have a numeric answer, the area counts as 50 and shows “not enough info”. When that’s Value, Pressure or Technical risk, the result is labeled “Provisional path”.
- Urgency = ½ Pressure + ½ Technical risk.
Five paths, checked in order
The first rule that matches wins. White ticks on the bars mark the thresholds.
Because rule 1 comes first, high technical risk with little pressure still gets Maintain & stabilize, plus a “stabilize first” note. Data and Readiness never change the path. They trigger notes:
- Readiness under 40: put an owner, test users and a phased budget in place first.
- The database statement at Partly or above, or Don’t know: map what reads the database before changing it.
- “Only one person understands the code” or “no staging copy” at Mostly or above: start with a code and access review, using our software handover checklist.
- Phone use at Mostly or above: a note linking to mobile-friendly retrofits.
- Top risks: up to five statements weighted 2 or more. The weight is your answer for Pressure and Technical risk, and 3 minus your answer for Data and Readiness. Ties go to Technical risk, then Pressure, Data and Readiness.
Neither system type nor technology affects the scores. System type labels your summary; technology also adjusts the notes and reading links, and picking Classic ASP adds our Classic ASP migration page.
Worked example (hypothetical)
Example (hypothetical, not client data): an internal scheduling app. Value answers 3, 3, 2, 3 average 2.75, and 2.75 ÷ 3 × 100 = 91.7, shown as 92. Pressure answers 2, 1, 2, 1, 1 give 46.7 (47). Technical risk answers 1, 2, 1, 1, 1 give 40. Urgency = ½ × 46.7 + ½ × 40 = 43.3 (43). Rule 1 fails, rule 2 matches: Modernize in place, page by page. “Only one person understands the code” was Mostly true, so the report opens with a code and access review.
Why three of the paths keep the old system running
A big-bang rewrite rebuilds years of business rules and switches everyone over at once. Edge cases are where it goes wrong: a price for one customer group, an approval that skips a step for small orders. Some may live only in the old code, and they’re easy to miss until the new system gets them wrong. Keeping the old system running while you change it helps keep a missed rule to one page or module.
A rewrite is the right call when the business rules have changed so much that little is worth keeping, or the platform can’t be secured or hosted any longer. The first shows up as Value under 50, and with Urgency 40 or more the scorecard recommends Replace. The second shows up as high Technical risk, which for a still-valuable system points to replacing it module by module. Our legacy application modernization page covers the options, from stabilizing a system to a planned rebuild.
Assumptions and limits
- Scores come only from your answers: no benchmarks, and no cost or timeline estimates.
- Statements in an area carry equal weight. The thresholds are judgment calls built into this tool, not an industry standard.
- It can’t see your code, and a look at the code and hosting can change the answer.
- Your answers stay in this browser. Copy share link keeps them after the # in the link, never in the query string. For more, see our free tools.