Use of legacy models vs new construction
Legacy:
- confidence: object has been used over an extended period, and (hopefully) also verified correspondingly.
- documentation: usually aimed at use and not so much at contents in terms of how things are done. Latter is often considered proprietary knowledge and consequently hidden from the user.
Consequence: often little is known of what is actually happening inside — remains with the creator. - outdated: generic ageing effects of required utilities such as hardware and software
- design limitations: available technology imposes constraints and re-orients objectives to make it work instead of achieving the original goal
New construction:
- fresh view: new can be fresh but does not need to ignore old. Knowledge integration hopefully improves overall.
- new implementation: enables the use of new tools, has thus the potential benefit of other discipline’s improved knowledge integration.
- redo:
- Can imply more work and thus increased investment
- Construction process is likely to introduce errors
- Old errors may surface and can be corrected
- Better chance to aim at original goal