In our previous posts, we discussed identifying business domains in your monolith, planning the split, and strategies for execution. Now, let’s focus on the crucial final phase: finishing the split and ensuring long-term success.

Maintaining Momentum

As you progress through your monolith splitting journey, it’s essential to keep the momentum going.

Bi-weekly Check-ins or just having a regular cadence where you track progress to completion helps co-ordinate, especially if you have many teams working on it. Use these bi-weekly meetings to:

1. Track progress towards completion
2. Share wins and learnings across teams
3. Identify and address blockers quickly
4. Maintain visibility of the project at a management level

These regular touchpoints help ensure that the split remains a priority and doesn’t get sidelined by other initiatives.

Have a Plan to Finish

One of the most critical aspects of a successful monolith split is having a clear plan to finish. Without this, you’ll start another migration before you’ve finished this one and end up with a multi-generation codebase.

Have a timeline in your bi-weekly’s, update it as you go so everyone has their eyes on teh finish line.

This timeline should:

1. Be realistic based on your progress so far
2. Include major milestones and dependencies
3. Be visible to all stakeholders

Remember, if you don’t finish, you’ll start another migration before you’ve finished this one and end up with a multi-generation codebase, which will explode cognitive load and lead to escaping bugs, war rooms, and prod incidents.

Handling the Long Tail

As you approach the end of your split, you’ll likely encounter a long tail of less-frequently used features or challenging components. Keep on top of them, it’ll be hard, but worth it in the end.

Celebrate the success at the end too, mark those big milestones, it means a lot to the people that worked tirelessly on the legacy code.

Conclusion

Completing a monolith split is a significant achievement that requires persistence, strategic thinking, and a clear plan. By maintaining momentum through regular check-ins, having a solid plan to finish, and consistently measuring your progress and impact, you can successfully navigate the challenges of this complex process.

Remember, the goal isn’t just to split your monolith—it’s to improve your system’s overall health, development velocity, and maintainability. Keep this end goal in mind as you make decisions throughout the process.

As you finish your split, take time to celebrate your achievement and reflect on the learnings. These insights will be invaluable for future architectural decisions and potential migrations.

Thank you for following this series on monolith splitting. We hope these insights help you navigate your own journey from monolith to microservices. Good luck with your splitting efforts!