Legacy system.

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 26 Slide 1
Legacy Systems
Older software systems that
remain vital to an organisation

Legacy systems
Software systems that are developed specially for
an organisation have a long lifetime
Many software systems that are still in use were
developed many years ago using technologies that
are now obsolete
These systems are still business critical that is,
they are essential for the normal functioning of
the business
They have been given the name legacy systems

Legacy system replacement
There is a significant business risk in simply
scrapping a legacy system and replacing it with a
system that has been developed using modern
technology
Legacy systems rarely have a complete specification. During
their lifetime they have undergone major changes which may
not have been documented
Business processes are reliant on the legacy system
The system may embed business rules that are not formally
documented elsewhere
New software development is risky and may not be successful

Legacy system change
Systems must change in order to remain useful
However, changing legacy systems is often
expensive
Different parts implemented by different teams so no consistent
programming style
The system may use an obsolete programming language
The system documentation is often out-of-date
The system structure may be corrupted by many years of
maintenance
Techniques to save space or increase speed at the expense of
understandability may have been used
File structures used may be incompatible

The legacy dilemma
It is expensive and risky to replace the legacy
system
It is expensive to maintain the legacy system
Businesses must weigh up the costs and risks and
may choose to extend the system lifetime using
techniques such as re-engineering.

Legacy system structures
Legacy systems can be considered to be socio-
technical systems and not simply software
systems
System hardware - may be mainframe hardware
Support software - operating systems and utilities
Application software - several different programs
Application data - data used by these programs that is often
critical business information
Business processes - the processes that support a business
objective and which rely on the legacy software and hardware
Business policies and rules - constraints on business operations

Legacy system components
System
hardware
Business
processes
Application
software
Businesspolicies
and rules
Support
software
Application
data
ConstrainsUsesUsesRuns-onRuns-on
Embeds
knowledge of
Uses

Layered model
Socio-technical system
Hardware
Support software
Application software
Business processes

System change
In principle, it should be possible to replace a
layer in the system leaving the other layers
unchanged
In practice, this is usually impossible
Changing one layer introduces new facilities and higher level
layers must then change to make use of these
Changing the software may slow it down so hardware changes
are then required
It is often impossible to maintain hardware interfaces because of
the wide gap between mainframes and client-server systems

Legacy application system
File1 File2 File3 File4 File5 File6
Program2Program1 Program3
Program4 Program5 Program6 Program7

Database-centred system
Program
1
Program
2
Program
3
Program
4
Database
management
system
Logical and
physical
datamodels
describes

Transaction processing
Serialised
transactions
Teleprocessing
monitor
Accounts
database
ATMs and terminals
Account queries
and updates

Legacy data
The system may be file-based with incompatible
files. The change required may be to move to a
database-management system
In legacy systems that use a DBMS the database
management system may be obsolete and
incompatible with other DBMSs used by the
business
The teleprocessing monitor may be designed for a
particular DB and mainframe. Changing to a new
DB may require a new TP monitor

Legacy system assessment
Organisations that rely on legacy systems must
choose a strategy for evolving these systems
Scrap the system completely and modify business processes so
that it is no longer required
Continue maintaining the system
Transform the system by re-engineering to improve its
maintainability
Replace the system with a new system
The strategy chosen should depend on the system
quality and its business value

System quality and business value
1
2
3 4
5
6
7
8
9
10
System quality
Business value
High business value
Low quality High business value
High quality
Low business value
Low quality
Low business value
High quality

Legacy system categories
Low quality, low business value
These systems should be scrapped
Low-quality, high-business value
These make an important business contribution but are
expensive to maintain. Should be re-engineered or replaced if a
suitable system is available
High-quality, low-business value
Replace with COTS, scrap completely or maintain
High-quality, high business value
Continue in operation using normal system maintenance

Legacy system.

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Legacy system.