Software Migration

THE PROCESS OF A MIGRATION PROJECT

Each of our migration projects follows a defined process. At every stage, it assumes the nature of a joint project between our custo­mers and us. The follo­wing figure illus­tra­tes the process from a workshop to the refactoring:

The project passes through various steps like:

• Workshop: Once you have evinced interest in a joint migration project with us, we hold jointly an all-day workshop. Here, you can present to us the current legacy system and describe your requi­re­ments and ideas concer­ning a software migration. We will present our techno­lo­gies and tools. If you provide us with selec­ted sources of your system (e.g. COBOL programs, mask descrip­ti­ons, …), we will demons­trate the migration process based on your sources. In conclu­sion, we will decide on how we should go about the next step of the coope­ra­tion together, which invol­ves prepa­ra­tion of a study.
  
• Study: Having agreed on further coope­ra­tion, the next step is the actual prepa­ra­tion of a study by us which will essen­ti­ally touch on the follo­wing points: 
  • Detailed compi­la­tion of the legacy system to be migra­ted inclu­ding its appli­ca­tion statistics.
  • Defini­tion of the target system (hardware, archi­tec­ture, appli­ca­tion server, programming and script languages, frameworks, …).
  • Defini­tion of the migration paths between the legacy and target systems. Among other things, the effort is asses­sed that is needed to adapt the existing tools to the concrete project requi­re­ments or, as the case may be, to develop new tools.
  • Syste­mi­sing the division of labour requi­red for the project between the partners concerned.
  •  Deter­mi­ning the effort in terms of finan­cial outlays and the proba­ble duration of the project as essen­tial results of the study.
• Pilot project: Based on the results of the study, a pilot project (proof of concept) will be initia­ted, which will imple­ment a verti­cal proto­ty­p­ing (mask, server, database) at a selec­ted subset of appro­xi­m­ately 20 % of the legacy system in order to verify the chosen migration technology and the tools used. Depen­ding on the outcome, these tools are readjus­ted if needed.
• Pre-Enginee­ring: In paral­lel to the pilot project, you will clean up the system to be migra­ted (“refur­bis­hing before migra­ting”). In this step, the term “Pre-Enginee­ring” means that reengi­nee­ring tasks are carried out ahead of the actual migration. Experi­ence acqui­red from previous projects has shown that the appli­ca­tion statis­tics to be migra­ted are reduced by appro­xi­m­ately 10–15 %.
• Migration project: After these steps of syste­ma­tic prepa­ra­tion, the joint migration project is launched. We offer this for a fixed price which can be agreed between the parties during the study phase. During the migration project, no code freeze is requi­red. Programs that have already been migra­ted and are subject to further develo­p­ment as part of general mainten­ance can be migra­ted again at any time. This ensures a contin­ued mainten­ance and an uninter­rupted opera­tion of your existing system. Upon project comple­tion, both the origi­nal program system and the system resul­ting from the migration have an identi­cal, up-to-date develo­p­ment status.
• Refac­to­ring: In the course of numerous migration projects, we have develo­ped a compre­hen­sive tool, which allows the automa­tic refac­to­ring of Java code after a migration. This means that, even years after a comple­ted project, you are able to react flexi­bly to new requirements.

All previous projects have been comple­ted successfully within the planned time frame and planned budget.