Organizational system evolution tends to follow a biological model, in which systems begin life, grow and mature, and finally wither and die. Some of those systems have a limited lifetime due to inherent weaknesses in their basic formulation or structure, but others are forced into replacement by business decisions based on platform or language availability, operational cost or efficiency considerations. In those cases in which the replacement is not based on an inadequate processing structure, the implementation of a total replacement is not necessarily the optimal approach for the organization.
