Building a case to migrate away from the use of tools or technologies in ways they were never intended to be used

Question

I've seen some pretty strange use of technology.

For example, one place I worked was using Microsoft Message Queuing to send real time streaming VoIP data between servers.

I work as a consultant and many times the person responsible for these decisions is no longer at the company. The problem is that from the perspective of non-technical people it works just fine. The problem comes when needing to add functionality and fix bugs in systems like this.

If you are in a situation like this how would you build a case to spend time migrating to a more suitable technology?

Answer 1

Are you able to put in terms of concrete benefits: - saved money - less risks - easy of development or maintenance (which should save money!)

If there are not tangible benefits then there is NO REASON to change!

Answer 2

You have to make a business case. In my experience, "This is an unsupported use" makes a great business case. Business people understand what it means to be unsupported by a vendor, and like to avoid that as much as the next person. Explain what risks or downsides the issue has to them (not to you).