Modernizing systems: Requirements analysis for legacy systems

Many software systems have been doing their job faithfully for years and decades. But the world, companies, and people are changing. This means that requirements and needs from the past lose their significance, while new demands and expectations are emerging. Not to mention the fact the maintenance of legacy software is becoming increasingly difficult due to staff shortages and technical changes. Are you facing the challenge of bringing a system into the modern age? Then we at Fraunhofer IESE are the right partner at your side.

Archeology in software systems

There can be various reasons for the need to modernize legacy systems: Changed legal frameworks for the operation of software, for the handling of data, or for access opportunities for marginalized groups are frequent reasons for revising an existing system – even without new business models or company goals. The pressure to modernize is often intensified by the fact that staff is aging along with the system and thus gradually leaves the company. It is foreseeable that no one will be available to carry out security updates, bug fixes, or change requests in the existing system – all the more so if the system is written in COBOL. In such cases, in particular, it is especially serious if there is hardly any software documentation and if it is unclear which requirements from which time are actually fulfilled for which target and user group. Modernization without this knowledge is a Herculean task.

Using requirements engineering methods

In order to accomplish this task of reducing technical debt and making software fit for the future, we at Fraunhofer IESE accompany you in analyzing your existing systems. To do so, we use state-of-the-art methods and tools, which have also been tested many times in practice.

The “Task-Oriented Requirements Engineering” framework, in particular, ensures that you will think of everything:

• the stakeholders of the system
• their goals
• the tasks to be fulfilled
• the (business) processes being executed
• the system functions
• the data processed in them – all in detail

To ensure that you do not only get a complete picture of the software, but also achieve efficient documentation, we use methods from our pool that are tailored to your situation.

• Do you have existing documentation? If so, we will systematically analyze this for you and compare it with the status of the software.
• Do you still have access to your key users or main persons responsible for the software? Then we will carry out structured interviews with them.
• Do you have a large number of users that have already provided feedback or can be motivated to give feedback? Then we will analyze large amounts of textual feedback in an automated way with the help of our “User Echo Service ”.

In other words, we make sure that you will pragmatically achieve documentation of your system and its exact requirements.

This analysis forms the basis for identifying potential for improvement in order to actually take advantage of the opportunities offered by modernization. These do not start with purely technical aspects, but rather they start with the requirements.

»Modernizing systems« at a glance

Goals

• Complete documentation of the requirements for your legacy system
• Development of a decision-making basis for retaining, omitting, or improving features
• Establishment of reliable plannability for technical modernization

Methodology

• Scope mapping of the legacy system to select the appropriate elicitation methods and documentation tools for you
• Analysis of the legacy system, taking into account all relevant decision points, to give you a complete picture of your system
• Documentation of all relevant information so that you will have this available as a permanent basis for continuing to work on the system
• Identification of potential for improvement so that you are not simply re-doing the same thing as before, but instead evolving with the times
• Extended offer: Implementation of Vision and Innovation Workshops  in order to not only modernize but also innovate a system using a variety of creativity techniques.

Results

• Documentation in a format that is suitable for you – as a classic requirements document or in modern requirements management systems
• Clarity and recommendations on which content-related, technical, or organizational measures should be taken for modernization