---
id: KB-TD-011
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/day-to-day/living-with-the-old-system
idioma: en
categoria: trabajo-diario
subcategoria: tareas
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-TD-001, KB-PS-006]
citadoPor: [KB-TD-017]
---

# Living with the old system

_For a few months you will have two places. How to manage without duplicating work or losing things._

**Responde a:** running two systems at once · migrating gradually without stopping work · what to do with the old shared folder · transitioning between document systems

Nobody switches systems overnight. For a few months some things will be here and some in the usual folder, and that period is where documents go missing and where people decide whether the change is real.

## The rule that makes it work

> [!IMPORTANT]
> **New material comes in here from day one; old material comes in only when it is needed.** Without that rule you end up maintaining both places in full, which is double the work and why most transitions get abandoned.

## What goes where during the overlap

| Situation | Where it goes | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| A new document arriving today | Here, always | If there are exceptions, there is no rule |
| An old document someone consults | Uploaded as it is consulted | You bring what gets used, which is little |
| An old document nobody touches | Stays where it is | Bringing it adds nothing |
| An old document expiring soon | Bring it now | It is the one you will need |

## How to run the period

1. **Set a cut-off date and say it out loud** — "From Monday the 3rd, whatever arrives goes here." Without a date there is no cut-off.
2. **Make the old system read-only when you can** — While both can be written to, both will be written to.
3. **Bring the expiring items first** — Insurance, certificates and contracts with end dates. They are what you will need soonest.
4. **And review after two months what has come across** — Usually 10% of the archive. That figure tells you how much of the rest was unnecessary.

> [!WARNING]
> The costliest failure is not technical: it is someone still saving to the old folder "just this once". Within a month there are two truths and nobody knows which to check. If you spot that, it is more urgent than any migration.

## When you can call it done

**En corto**

- When nobody has opened the old system in a month.
- When everything with an expiry date is here.
- And when the answer to "where is this?" is no longer "it depends".

> [!NOTE]
> The old archive need not be deleted. It can stay read-only for as long as you like: what matters is that it stops receiving new material, not that it disappears.

**Can I upload everything at once?**

You can, and sometimes it pays. But bringing what nobody looks at only buries what matters.

**How long does the overlap last?**

Weeks with a cut-off date; indefinitely without one.

**What if the team resists?**

It is almost always because they cannot find something. Look at that before insisting.

## Ejemplos

**A team has spent four months with documents in two places and no longer knows which is right.**

- Sets a cut-off date and makes the old folder read-only
- Uploads what expires this year first

→ Within three weeks "where is this?" stops having two answers.

**For six months the old and new systems coexist and nobody knows which to check.**

- Sets the date from which only the new one counts
- Leaves the old one read-only
- Announces the cut-off to the whole team

→ There stop being two truths and nobody works in the wrong place.

**A document is uploaded to the old system out of habit.**

- Closes document intake on the old one

→ New material lands where it should.

**You search the new one and the document is in the old.**

- Notes which period each one covers

→ You know where to look without trying both.

**The old system is switched off with documents nobody migrated.**

- Checks what remains before switching off

→ Nothing is lost along the way.

**Nobody decides when the old one gets switched off.**

- Sets a date and an owner

→ The overlap ends rather than lasting forever.