What criteria do you use to determine when to sunset an older technology?
"Deciding when to sunset older technology requires a careful analysis of the impact it would have on the organization. Criteria I use include the cost of continuing to support the older products and whether the manufacturers are providing regular upgrades and patches. The next thing I look at is whether the technology is still productive within the organization and if sunsetting it would impact the productivity in either a negative or positive way. The final criteria is the cost to upgrade the technology and if there are more effective ways to allocate the funds."
This is an interesting operational question. Not only does it seek to understand how you manage technology in an ICT environment, but it also will help the interviewer gain some insight into how you balance cost and productivity. Many technology professionals chase the latest developments in their field and are willing to spend the organization's budget doing this. Others are overly budget conscious and don't upgrade products even when doing so may increase the organization's productivity. The key is finding a balance between these two strategies.
"There are several criteria I use when deciding when to sunset an older technology. The first is the cost of supporting the technology vs. the cost of upgrading it. Second, I consider the logistics of implementing a new technology including retraining the users. The final criteria I use is the impact on the organization, including downtime and any loss of productivity due to the transition."
