Just to clarify, this article is all about business analysis. I am still a practicing BA and have not changed my profession.

2nd point - Please do not make it a gender issue - we men would also like to look younger.

Now you must be wondering how this article relates to business analysis.

This was a simile provided by our UX expert for a client request. He said it's possible to make a 26-year-old woman look like 16 by proper grooming, but the client is asking for someone 46 years old to look like 16.

This is an interesting problem to solve.

Organizations do have systems that are old, sometimes 20 to 30 years old. They want the system to behave as if it is fresh out of the oven. They want the application to look really cool as that attracts customers.

What should we do in this case? Should we discard the old system and build a new one?

We can, but that would be quite expensive and time-consuming.

Can we take some other approach?

Let me tell you an approach that one business owner took: 

There was a management college next to my apartment in Bangalore. It did not have great demand and was maintained poorly. The business owner discovered that this area is newly developed, and a lot of young couples (mostly first-generation migrants to the city) have started living in the area. So the demand for schools was increasing day by day. So, the business owner invited an architect and changed the exterior of the old building. This made the building much more vibrant, and it is a successful school now.

Many times often, our users need something very similar. Functionalities are pretty ok, but they want it to look good, make it available on multiple devices, and use the latest styles. So, the best thing is to build a presentation layer (sometimes even a database layer) but leave the business rules layer to the old system. This way, users feel happy that they are interacting with a modern application. IT and management are happy that the investment in the old system has been protected.

Do let me know your thoughts and ideas on your experiences with your own or client organizations.

Happy reading and have a wonderful day.