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The Cascading Upgrade Failure Effect

I just named a phenomenon. Perhaps someone else already has as well, but you read it here first (I think). The main issue with upgrading a system is what I am terming the Cascading Upgrade Failure Effect. Its meaning is simple and perhaps self-explanatory, but let's explore it a little.

Like a complex Rube-Goldberg device, everything in a computer system is related and, in my opinion, engineered to fail if it is changed in the slightest. You could call it Murphy's Law, but if you change anything in a computer's hardware or software, all of the other non-upgraded components get jealous and start a fight. Sometimes even a war. The printer starts printing out test pages. Windows decides it doesn't want to be shut down. Or you start getting annoying, indecipherable error messages that WinHost32 Processes have failed, and do you want to send Microsoft an email to let them know?

Humor aside, the point is that when hardware and software are produced, they tend to get tested with other hardware and software out at the same time. Call it the equivalent of a digital family or generation, but when you upgrade one component, the other components in the system often don't like the new young pup. And the new young pup has great disdain for the older generation. Bottom line is, you get a cascading set of failures and problems which I have dubbed the Cascading Upgrade Failure Effect. Changing one small piece of hardware or software breaks another, and another, until it's hard to know exactly how to fix the issues or even know where they started.

That means a cascading, out-of-control spiral of costs and time as well, as you or your IT department troubleshoot the new weird things happening and determine just exactly how to fix it. Doesn't sound so fun now, does it?

The fix usually involves downgrading back to the original software/hardware, or worse, upgrading the whole system top to bottom. What started as an innocent, "I think I'll update to the newest printer drivers" turns into, "I hope Joe can get this system to boot before lunch so I can finish this proposal to that new client!"

Therefore, due to the Cascading Upgrade Failure Effect, and its potential consequences both financially and time-wise, your best advice about upgrading anything is, not to! Unless you have to.

So how do you know if you have to upgrade?

Well, the simple answer is, you'll know. In my own experience, I was using QuickBooks Pro to do my invoicing. I had a version from 2004, and it did everything I needed it to do, including this cool little feature that even let me email my invoices directly to my clients, right from within QuickBooks Pro itself. How handy is that! I hate mailing things out, dealing with stamps, and going to the post-office. So when I got the regular emails and snail-mail ads urging me to upgrade to the newer version of QuickBooks Pro, I honestly had no need. Until QuickBooks created the need for me!

You see, I had grown quite fond of this little invoice emailing feature. One might even say, dependent on it. It was handy. Convenient. I liked the graphic animations while it mailed my invoice. Me and QuickBooks Pro 2004 were fast friends!

Then I got a notice from QuickBooks stating that my beloved feature was being sunsetted, and would no longer function after a few more months! The only way to keep this feature was to upgrade to the newest version. Pretty sneaky, underhanded, and clever on their part! So I shelled out the 350 bucks, and upgraded. This is an example of having to upgrade, and you will certainly run into business and functionality issues that will force you to upgrade.

Read on to page 3 to discover another, final, and perhaps more sinister force at work which will cause you to upgrade eventually, no matter what.