4 Important Steps for the Sustainable Software Modernisation

Step 1

Custom-fit Assessments for Good Decisions

The solution is an assessment. But, be careful: It is not enough - as many providers propose - to simply list a few figures about the approximate size and number of modules in order to receive reliable estimates of the effort and costs. The risks, as so often, lie in the details.

Of course, rough decisions and gut feeling could also lead to success. As a rule, however, they lead to delays (also in other projects) and significant cost increases and, unfortunately, often also to the failure of modernisation projects.

In its Chaos Report 2019, the Standish Group reports that 83.9% of IT projects fail partially or completely. The following reasons for failure are repeatedly cited in studies:

1. Badly defined requirements
2. Poorly defined or unrealistic planning
3. Inaccurate and unrealistic estimates

The modernisation projects that we have implemented for large financial service providers have shown that only a complete analysis of all sources in advance provides reliable information. The emphasis here is placed on Complete and All. This is the only way to recognize all obstacles and dependencies. This is the only way to make good decisions and eliminate the risks.

Tailor-made Assessment - Why?

Simply collecting all the data about your applications will not help you to reliably assess the risks and costs of extensive changes. This can only be achieved by an analysis that is precisely tailored to your project goal and your applications.

Our projects have shown us that a targeted and individually tailored analysis of the applications is a crucial basis for:

1. The exact definition of the requirements
2. Reliable planning
3. Inaccurate and unrealistic estimates

The modernisation projects that we have implemented for large financial service providers have shown that only a complete analysis of all sources in advance provides reliable information. The emphasis here is placed on Complete and All. This is the only way to recognize all obstacles and dependencies. This is the only way to make good decisions and eliminate the risks.

Tailor-made Assessment - Why?

Simply collecting all the data about your applications will not help you to reliably assess the risks and costs of extensive changes. This can only be achieved by an analysis that is precisely tailored to your project goal and your applications.

Our projects have shown us that a targeted and individually tailored analysis of the applications is a crucial basis for:

1. The exact definition of the requirements
2. Reliable planning
3. The realistic assessment of the risks and efforts

A tailor-made assessment finds all stumbling blocks and helps to precisely define the requirements for a project, enables precise planning and thus paves the way for the successful implementation.

What Can We Do for You?

If you want to ensure the success of your modernisation projects, find out about the possibilities of our tailor-made application assessments.

You can find an initial overview in our flyer “Application Assessment: Don't Guess – Assess”.

Every project is different and our flyer just gives you a first general idea. To get the best solution for you, you should directly discuss the requirements and details of your project with us.

Step 2

Automated Application Analysis – Why?

Regardless of whether you want to modernise the functionality of your backend applications by changing the data management system or replacing individual technology modules, or whether you want to redevelop them using ‘modern’ languages, you always need to know exactly what is currently implemented and how it is implemented.

Understanding large and complex applications is a Herculean task! Especially if you have not developed the applications yourself and even more so if the original developers are no longer available. The documentation - if available and up-to-date - does not provide the knowledge about the implementation of the functionality that is necessary for understanding and modernising or rewriting.

Even if the applications were originally well structured, this design has often suffered over the decades. Old architectures and techniques are used. New code was repeatedly added to fulfil new requirements. However, code that was no longer needed was rarely removed, as there was no real certainty that this code was no longer needed under any circumstances and the cost and effort of testing was spared. It is generally estimated that the proportion of ‘dead code’ in applications increases by around 10% per decade. This also prevents precise understanding.

Poor understanding of existing applications leads to

1. poorly or even incorrectly defined requirements
2. poorly defined and unrealistic planning
3. unrealistic estimates of risks and expenses
4. errors during modernisation or new implementation

Read also ‘Chaos Report 2019 by the Standish Group’ for more details.

In addition, a lack of understanding of existing applications usually also leads to delays (also in other projects) and significant cost increases and, unfortunately, often to the failure of modernisation projects.

Really Understanding Applications – A Dream?

The truth or rather the entire knowledge about your applications, their functionality and their actual implementation is in the current source code!

But beware: It is not enough - as many providers propagate - to simply visualise the application code, data usage and possibly also the dependencies. Some tools, especially those that are also used for maintenance, also offer step-by-step execution of the code. All of this is not enough to really understand the applications and their implementation.

But, the good news is: this knowledge can be recovered quickly using our automated application analysis.

Proper Structuring and Logical Abstraction

Real understanding can only be gained through the right structuring and logical abstraction, through the ability to view the analysed code under varying aspects and from different perspectives and, above all, to be able to abstract the implementation across multiple levels.

The aim is not only to visualise the physical code and data structures, but also to determine the logical components of the source code and the conditions for their interaction. This is the only way to derive the implemented functions, their interfaces and the conditions for their execution.

To simplify knowledge transfer, onboarding and subject-specific communication, the information also needs to be presented in a language-neutral way.

Automated Application Analysis with AMELIO Logic Discovery

AMELIO Logic Discovery is an innovative analysis tool that helps you to better understand your native and generated COBOL, PL/I and Delta ADS applications and to comprehensively secure the relevant functionality.

Through in-depth and comprehensive analyses of the applications, AMELIO Logic Discovery determines

• what is implemented
• how it is implemented
• which logical relationships exist
• which components form a logical unit (procedures, composites, ...)
• the conditions under which procedures and components are called or executed
• what the interfaces of these components look like
• which data structures are used, how and where (definition, scope, ...)

The implementation details are abstracted, the information obtained is connected, logically structured and the knowledge about the functionality of the application is derived. The result is a clear, language-neutral and technology-independent visualisation of the application logic, in which users can navigate freely across all levels, in topic-related views and in selectable levels of detail, so that your teams can easily understand the applications.

The modernisation projects we have accomplished for large companies have shown that a precise understanding of the functionality of the existing applications and their implementation is essential for the success of modernisation projects.

AMELIO Logic Discovery offers new, flexible and well-structured views of our applications. Especially the logical views help to find and understand the crucial points in our applications.
Marcel Rozema (Senior Software Architekt, RDW)

AMELIO Logic Discovery offers you a reliable basis for your application modernisation, for the elimination of technical debt, for decisions on the next development steps, for new development with modern languages and for many other tasks.

The AMELIO Tool Family

AMELIO Logic Discovery can be extended according to your specific needs. For example, it is possible to use code-smell analyses to determine whether company-specific coding standards are being violated and, if so, where. For modernisation projects, the ‘points of interest’ and thus possible crucial points can be determined automatically.

Especially for clean-up and modernisation projects, AMELIO Logic Discovery can be combined with other tools from the AMELIO family to perform the necessary changes to the source code in a fully automated and audit-proof manner.

Our tools help you to analyse COBOL, PL/I and Delta ADS applications in a targeted manner, to adapt them quickly and securely to new requirements and technical infrastructures and to reliably assess risks.

This (and more) is what we can do for you!

If you want to reduce the risks and costs for your modernisation projects and to make it easier for your teams to really (re)understand your applications, then find out now about the possibilities of our automated application analysis with AMELIO Logic Discovery.

We offer you an initial overview in our flyer ‘Analysis for COBOL & PL/I - (re)understanding applications’

Further information on AMELIO Logic Discovery can also be found here:

AMELIO Logic Discovery: Really Understanding COBOL, PL/I, Delta ADS Applications

Every project is different and our flyers only give you an initial overview. To get the best solution for you, you should discuss the requirements and details of your project with us directly.

Step 3

Agile Clean-up

Coming soon

Step 4

Fully Automated Transformation

Coming soon