Insigma Hengtian Software, Ltd, outlines value added benefits of reengineering legacy systems.
DATELINE: CAMBRIDGE, MA…
With many business owners continuing to shy away from major investments for needed improvements as the economy recovers, Bob Brown of Insigma Hengtian Software, Ltd. outlines the advantages of reengineering legacy systems.
“The prospect of modifying a legacy system presents a daunting challenge to many business owners who are well aware of the shortfalls of their existing systems, but are reluctant to change for fear of disrupting a system that is integral to their operation, or for fear of costs spiraling beyond projections. When skillfully implemented, reengineering offers the prospect of boosting the performance of an existing system at a fraction of the cost of purchasing a completely new system,” noted Brown.
A recent white paper drafted by Insigma Hengtian, provides a succinct overview of the reengineering process, which usually includes some form of reverse engineering followed by forward engineering or restructuring. This may include modification with respect to new requirements not met by the original system, including:
• Re-thinking conceptual components
• Re-specifying requirements
• Re-design
• Re-coding implementation
The cost of using reengineering approaches to renew a legacy system is usually at least 60% less than the development of a completely new system. The advantages of reengineering are:
• Improved reliability, maintainability, performance, etc
• Complete comprehension of the legacy system
• Decreased development costs and risks
• Shortened system development cycle
• Undisrupted business continuity
Reengineering is not without its challenges Brown explained, “There are four critical difficulties: business comprehension from program language, design recovery from architecture-degenerated software, the gap from programming to human thought, and the combination of bottom-up and top-down analysis. Employing a five-part program comprehension framework composed of legacy code slicing, domain variable identification, data analysis, business rules representation, and verification can decrease both the quantity of resources required and overall project time.”
“An additional challenge involves the migration of a legacy system with outdated techniques to a new platform,” continued Brown. “To minimize these difficulties Insigma Hengtian has found that reengineering a legacy System into a partition-based distributed environment has several advantages, including high performance, scalability and availability. Taking advantage of the J2EE environment, the target system framework utilizes code conversation, component identification, component interface modeling and target system deployment.”
“A spiral model can also be utilized to reduce the total risk of legacy system reengineering. In this model, a legacy system is reengineered into new platforms iteratively, with only a part of the system being alternated and deployed in the new environment in each cycle. Since each module alteration or new requirement sub-procedure addition is being performed on a reliable, stable system, the risk is significantly decreased compared to a big-bang approach,” added Brown. Insigma Hengtian has successfully implemented these processes during the reengineering of several financial industry legacy systems.
Insigma Hengtian Software Ltd.
Insigma Hengtian Software Ltd. is a trusted international technology and service provider dedicated to providing sophisticated, strategic level technology development and support to global institutions in the financial services, insurance, healthcare, and technology industries.
Established ten years ago as a strategic alliance between Insigma Technology (Shanghai Stock exchange 600797), State Street Corporation (NYSE:STT) and Zhejiang University, Hengtian employs a unique co-sourcing collaborative project management model to develop leading edge customized technology solutions to meet the changing needs of clients worldwide. These solutions include: system design, software development, quality assurance, system integration, and technical support.
Insigma Hengtian’s variable cost and dynamic resourcing capability ensures the availability of reliable and sustainable team growth opportunities through its close affiliation with Zheijiang University. In addition, Insigma Hengtian’s unique strategic partnerships also offer unmatched access to China market expertise and influencers.
Insigma Hengtian currently employs over 600 people at the company’s headquarters and development center located in Hangzhou, China. Insigma Hengtian’s US office is located at 485 Massachusetts Avenue, Suite 301 in Cambridge, MA 02139. For additional information on services offered by Insigma Hengtian Software Ltd. please call 857-998-4141, email US@Hengtiansoft.com, or visit www.Hengtiansoft.com.
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