We look through source code

The challenge with legacy systems (legacy software)

Old software, also referred to as legacy software, is characterised by the fact that
  • it has been created years, sometimes decades ago,
  • is written in procedural programming languages (Cobol, RPG, PL/1 etc), which have not been taught since a long time,  
  •  qualified young people are not available on the labour market,
  • the original development team is no longer available or only available in reduced numbers,
  • the technical documentation of the legacy system, if any, again requires deep know-how of the respective programming language to understand.

Where would you rank your system?

In use since go-live
Less than 2 years
Longer than 15 years
Application type
Not business critical
Business-critical
Requirements Business
Time uncritical requirements
System is increasingly perceived as a "brakeman"
Time implementation fulfilment
Keeping to deadlines without any problems
Increasing annoyance with the business
Programming technology
Programming language taught in education
No longer in the training plans
Technical documentation
Up to date and under- standable for third parties
Sourcecode
Availability of qualified junior staff
Availability on the labour market given
Hard to recruit skilled personnel

AVESOR©-Legacy - Topographic Map Legacysystem

For decades there have been mathematical methods with which program code can be measured. Lines-of-Code is an often cited example for a possible software measurement result. But by far not the only one.

As with topographic hiking maps the combination and arrangement of the measured values is crucial, for example size of the individual programs, call sequences, contain logic, interfaces, global data ranges. All important results are included in the topographic AVESOR-Legacykarten© and are clearly displayed there.

Topographical AVESOR Legacy Maps© can be created for procedural legacy programming languages, for example

  • Cobol,
  • RGP,
  • PL/1.

Usage of topographical AVESOR-Legacy Maps©

Topographic AVESOR Legacy Maps© have a wide range of applicability.

They can be used for

  • Assessing scenarios (which path is the optimal one to get from the current state to the destination). The possible goals are manifold and range from
    • Digitization projects
    • Reducing technical debt to lower maintenance costs and shorten lead times
    • Enhancement of the existing legacy system with new functionalities
    • Decision basis - replacement of the entire system with a big bang or still with an iterative / incremental approach
    • and much more
  • for detailed project planning (which system areas will have to be worked on in which order, which difficulties are waiting in which areas)
  • for reliable time and cost planning.
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The art of planning is to anticipate the difficulties of execution. (Luc de Clapiers)