>Was brought into a company which has 350 user VFP 6.0 system with roots back in a 2.6 application. The system has scaled way beyond the exisiting system of 60 users. The FoxPro backend crashes 5 times a day with data corruption. The senior management has decided to go to SQL Server 2000 and has hired me and few consultants with enterprise Database experience. The current programming department (one developer) is extremely resistant to changing the architecture from a client\server(1996 vintage) system to a scalable n-tier or 3-tier system. He is in the process of porting over some of the UI screens to point towards remote views which he will locate on the clients local harddrive. I'm not asking for help with interoffice politics but what resources can I point to convince management that this is still a "hack" and will not work on a system with this many users. We are thinking of a n-tier design with SQL server 2000/VFP BusinessRules COM server/VFP Data Access COM server/User
>Interface. The data will be communicated through the COM layers with either XML or ADO. As some of you know, coming into disassemble someone's kludgeware system can be difficult when the designer of the system is on staff is desperately trying remain relevant yet remain uncooperative.

No offense, but your "plan" seems to have a lot of "or"s in it ...

Unless you've had first-hand experience with "n-Tier" and can show the Client an example, you're headed for a big fall; this is not the time to develop with unfamiliar technology. If you need to ask "others" to help formulate your arguments for you, you better rethink your position (IMO).

As for the "home developer", I'll grant him this: He doesn't appear to be biting of more than he can chew. Going with 2-tier first isn't a waste of time either. At the very least, the Client will be getting something sooner ... which may give them the confidence to allow you to go "n-tier" later.