VB6 to VB.NET project

[kymjay]

Hey all,
I have a situation and I wanted the expertise of the great minds on this group. We currently have a VB6 application that runs on a MS Access 2003 backend that we use for inventory and repair order management. It was an application I developed in-house. We now ready to move the application over to the VB.NET platform with a SQL Server backend and increase the functionality of the application. I am mulling over two different ways to do this:

1. Move the app to VB.NET and leave on MS Access but upgrade to MS Access 2010 and then increase the functionality. Once this is all tested and stable, go back and migrate to SQL Server.
2. Move the app to VB.NET and migrate to SQL Server and then increase the functionality.

I am thinking option 1 is where I want to go because to move from VB6 to VB.Net will probably require a good bit of rewrite for the software at which time I can just increase the functionality along with the rewrite. I want to get that stable so that the personnel at the company can move to this new version and use it because they do need to get the inventory completed by the end of January. Once the inventory is completed, we can then work on the migration to SQL Server which will also require some rewrite for the queries and database setup. My thought is moving it to another Access database would reduce some of the time to get it back up and running so we can use it.

Please let me know your thoughts on this.
Thanks
Kim

[Shaggy Hiker]

What I would do would be this:

1) Leave them using the current version with the current setup, because inventory has to be completed by the end of January. If you start into a total re-write and expect it to be up, running, and stable in one month with just you working on it, this project has to be considerably simpler than you make it sound.

2) Set up SQL Server. If you have a functioning Access DB, you probably have the table structure you need, or close to it, already, so migrating that to SQL Server isn't going to be huge.

3) Start work on the new project against SQL Server while the working version is working against the functioning Access DB.

4) Once the new project is up and tested, migrate the existing Access DB data into SQL Server.

5) Stop using the old program and start using the new one.

[kymjay]

OK Thanks that helps.