Audience

Modernizing Legacy Systems: Software Technologies, Engineering Processes, and Business Practices should be useful to anyone involved in modernizing a legacy system.

• For a software engineer, the book should help you understand some of the larger business concerns that drive a modernization effort.

• For a software designer, this book should help you understand the impact of legacy code, coupled with incremental development and deployment practices, on design activities.

• For a system architect, this book explains the processes and techniques that have failed or succeeded in practice. It should also provide insight into how you can repeat these successes and avoid the failures.

• For an IT manager, this book explains how technology and business objectives influence the software modernization processes.

In particular, the book should help you answer the following questions:

• When and how do I decide whether a modernization or replacement effort is justified?

• How do I develop an understanding of the legacy system?

• How do I gain an understanding of, and evaluate the applicability of, information system technologies that can be used in the modernization of my system?

• When do I involve the stakeholders, and how can I reconcile their conflicting needs?

• What role does architecture play in legacy system modernization?

• How can I estimate the cost of a legacy system modernization?

• How can I evaluate and select a modernization strategy?

• How can I develop a detailed modernization plan?