aka - Why being a software/web developer sucks right now?

I’ve come to realise that the lifespan of software/web applications is approximately 8 - 12 years. Put into perspective this means that software developed between 1998 - 2000 is now being replaced. As a developer there is a big difference between being involved with a project to develop new software (functionality, features, whatever) as opposed to just rebuilding every feature in a short timeframe or even worst having to replace a custom in-house built masterpiece (spaghetti code and all) with an off the shelf product. I admit that I like to build and design software from scratch — its just more exciting. …..But if we must replace software because it is built with an out of date technology, we better make sure that we are building something that will last for at least the next 8 - 12 years. At the moment I am not sure this is possible! Web development frameworks and technologies seem to be in a state transition.

Let’s take a look:

• In .NET Land
  Lots of asp apps exist, even 7 years after the release of .NET. Should you transition to ASP.NET 2.0 or would it be wiser to let the new MVC framework and ORM techniques such as Linq to SQL stabilize first?
• In Java Land
  From EJB to Spring + Hibernate. But what if you head back to EJB 3 or 4 and JPA in the next few years? From Struts to ? - I am not sure what the leading web framework for Java is at the moment? Maybe give Wicket or something like Grails a try?
• In Ruby Land
  Rails stills sets the pace for streamlined productivity but will only be enterprise ready in a year or 2. ….by enterprise I mean bureaucratic companies/departments that are slow to install Ruby and slow to add servers that would allow Rails apps to scale! The ‘Enterprise’ should not be mistaken for the ‘Worldly Web App’ - a space Rails is already proven in. Rails is still evolving and 2007 has seen the emergence of more Ruby web frameworks eg Merb.

So the question is, in transitioning to a new technology, framework or off the shelf software product are you sure that it will go the distance?

….And you better make sure that the off the shelf product that is replacing something custom built is not built with out of date technology from the same era. A sure sign of this is the use of framesets. I wont mention software names here but yeah some elearning products dictate the use of frames - bring on HTML 5!