Quite often, software “mostly works”.
Sometimes, “mostly” is no longer enough.
Many organizations face the same situation: their systems work for the most part, but there are rough edges that tend to be overlooked in favor of more pressing concerns… until they become a concern themselves.
If you have an application that “mostly works” but the little glitches are getting on your (or your team’s) nerves, there is probably no need to throw it away and start from scratch. Many applications can be healed, even if they have accumulated aches and pains for some time.
When you work day in and day out with an application that is “almost” good enough, you “almost” get used to it, but in the back of your mind, there is still a voice that reminds you of the faults, of the frustration, of the lost productivity, of how much better you know your days could be if only you stopped running for a moment and took the pebble out of your shoe.
Some times, those little glitches end up causing significant losses in morale and productivity. Entire departments are known to quietly avoid using certain pieces of software because, even if the faults are small when seen as a whole, the friction they generate is enough to put people off.
Don’t let that happen to you. Where it counts, bring back to your team the joy of working with systems that actually work. Remove the barriers in their way and let them do their jobs the way they’re supposed to.