You know the old saying: People don't plan to fail; they fail to plan. A recent eWeek story reports that Intel has encountered various "compatibility issues" during its months-long migration to Windows 7. Know what we're thinking? Failure to plan.

Here's a key excerpt from the story:

While the deployment is apparently progressing as planned, Intel senior systems programmer Roy Ubry suggested in [a] blog posting that application compatibility with Windows 7 remains a challenge to overcome.

Call us crazy, but no company--especially one the size of Intel--should run into compatibility issues after deploying Windows 7. That's because Microsoft offers any number of tools designed to prevent--if not circumvent--those kinds of problems.

For example, there's the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) 5.5, which helps IT managers determine whether specific apps are Windows 7-compatible before deployment.

Then there's the Windows 7 Application Compatibility List for IT Professionals, an Excel spreadsheet with compatibility info for more than 5,500 programs.

And let's not forget all the virtualization options, like MED-V and Windows XP Mode.

Admittedly, Intel's issues seem to be centered around the UAC (User Account Control) and the shift to 64-bit computing. You can't hold Windows 7 accountable for the latter; any such move (which is inevitable) is sure to wreak some havoc with legacy apps. (Note to CIOs: Time to lean on software developers. 16-bit software has no place in the 21st century.)

What's more, Intel says the move to Windows 7 will save the company some $11 million over the next three years. So even with a few speedbumps along the way, the bottom line looks a lot better.

What do you think? Should Intel have done more to road-test Windows 7 before starting deployment? Or are issues like these par for the course with any OS migration?

Follow Migration Expert Zone on Twitter!