I am a .Net developer that has been tasked with upgrading a classic asp website to asp.net. The website is currently running on luck and bubble gum but there is not enough time or money to stop progress and do a full rewrite. Of course I will still need to be able to deliver new features while I am upgrading.
What strategies should I use to make a smooth gradual change to asp.net? Should I convert to a single tier .net solution and then refactor to a proper multi-tier solution or should I design my business and data layers now? Should I go straight to 3.5 or is it easier to just get to 1.1 and upgrade to 2.0 or 3.5 after?
A full conversion would probably take 3-5 months. There is also some existing 1.1 code, which is why I am considering using that as a jumping off point.
Having been a longtime classic asp programmer, and now an ASP.NET dev, I would take the time and architect it properly in the 2.0 framework (3.5 if you want/need the features).
My last job we had a large handful of very badly build classic asp apps that we were rebuilding, and the ‘nuke and pave’ approach was the most successful. Use the existing classic app as your functional spec and wireframes, and build your tasks and tech specs off of that.