GreenWordsThis Old Application

Front-End Quality Management and Your Mission-Critical Fixer-Uppers

GreenWords

— A fix-it-upper or a tear-it-downer?— The value proposition for renovating Legacy

Systems — Why renovation projects go wrong: Quality

management issues specific to renovation projects

— A Quality Management process for renovation projects

— Making sure your renovation projects go right

Agenda

GreenWords

A fix-it-upper or a tear-it-downer?

— Implemented on a 360— Functional specification last seen in 1987— COBOL source code incomplete— Last known update, enhancement or maintenance

fix in 1991— No documentation of updates, enhancements or

maintenance fixes since 1989On the other hand…— Last outage in 1991, for one hour— The central repository of current as well as

historical data for critical business functions— Can be managed by a two-person team

GreenWords

Legacy Systems: the issues

— Legacy Systems are still the information backbone of many organizations

— Legacy Systems contain data with critical untapped value

— Character-based Legacy System interfaces keep the value locked up

— Fixing up or tearing down is a strategic decision that requires careful analysis

GreenWords

The issues become critical when…

— The cost and difficulty of maintaining old code is becoming a serious drain

— The limitations of character-based terminal access are impacting business processes

— The business model implicit in the software may no longer be valid

— The terminal-host communications architecture can no longer support important business information needs

GreenWords

Fix it up or tear it down?

— Fixing up (renovating) an old application may add years of value —OR avoid the inevitable only for a short time and at a

high cost

— Tearing down (replacing) an old application may provide a necessary leap into new technology —OR divert scarce development resources from more

essential projects at a high cost in organizational disruption

GreenWords

The Value Proposition for renovating a Legacy System

Renovation can have a faster payback and a higher ROI when

— The application works— Up-to-date documentation or Subject Matter Experts are

available— The business rules are up to date or easily updated— Data volumes dictate keeping the current platforms— Replacement will take too long or be too disruptive— The current mainframe technology is stable, reliable, and

cost-effective— The application’s core functions meet the most important

user needs

GreenWords

The value proposition for tearing it down

Replacement may be the best solution when— The application has only a few years life-expectancy with or

without renovation— Subject Matter Experts are not available to support

renovation— The business rules no longer apply— Design recovery is essential but prohibitively expensive or

difficult— The cost and risk of replacement meets the parameters of a

business case even if more expensive

GreenWords

Potential benefits of renovation

— Increase ROI by leveraging existing host systems — Reduce costs— Increase revenue — Increase employee satisfaction— Maintain technological stability— Defer need for high-cost, high-risk alternatives

GreenWords

Opting for Renovation

GreenWords

Why renovation projects go wrong

— The value proposition for renovation is weak— Poor requirements management— Poor communication with users— Lack of a renovation-centric quality management

process

GreenWords

— The application’s basic functionality does not support business processes or user needs

— Multiple physical formats and data definitions exist for the same data entities

— The procedural code is a mess— Maintenance costs are already too high— The infrastructure costs too much or is unstable— No SMEs are available to extract business rules

The value proposition may be weak if…

GreenWords

Poor requirements management

— Most frequent cause of ALL project failures— Excuses, excuses, excuses

—“We already know the requirements”—“We are only changing the front end”—"We don't know exactly what the product will be

yet"—“We can’t get commitment for the extra up-front

effort required“—"We have a deadline and can't afford the luxury of

writing a specification" —"Requirements are hard to write and all they do is

keep changing“

GreenWords

Requirements Management is a classic “Wicked Problem”

— The solution is often implemented before the problem is fully understood.

— Developers and stakeholders understand the problem in different ways (that keep changing) – problem-solving becomes a cultural issue.

— Budgets, external drivers, resources, and available technologies keep changing

— The problem is never “solved” in the traditional sense - you simply run out of resources.

GreenWords

Poor communication with users

— Failure to manage expectations— Failure to create or sustain partnership

GreenWords

Lack of a renovation-centric quality management process

— A renovation project is a development project— Just like any other development project, renovation

projects need a quality management process— Renovation projects have specific front-end quality

management needs— Most development projects don’t have good front-end

quality management— Why should renovation projects be any different?

GreenWords

A renovation-centric quality management process

— Front-end loaded— Verification and Validation of key development

deliverables— Business case— Technology and business impacts of alternatives— Readiness of the renovation environment— Application baseline— New services description— Assessment of application structure and code— New functional specification

GreenWords

Assess the business case

— Development activity: Assess the business case for the current value of the application, and the projected payback and ROI through renovation

— Verification and validation: Were enough of the following carefully collected and organized?

— User interviews, surveys, and focus groups— Review of documentation— SME interviews— Vendor interviews— Technology assessments— Counter-evidence

GreenWords

Assess technology and business impacts

— Development activity: Assess the technology and business impact of alternative renovation approaches

— Verification and validation: Did the assessment consider costs, benefits and risks:

— If implemented in current environment— If implemented in new or enhanced environment— To current business processes— Of taking resources from other opportunities— Counter-evidence

GreenWords

Assess readiness of renovation environment

— Development activity: Assess the readiness of the renovation environment

— Verification and validation: Did the assessment consider—Costs, benefits, and risks to establish required

infrastructure, tools, and skills?—Counter-evidence?

GreenWords

Application baseline

— Development activity: Baseline the application— Verification and validation: Did the baseline include the

following?—State of the documentation—Impact of the application on others sharing the same

production environment—Current maintenance costs—Level of user satisfaction—Validity of current business rules for core functions—Counter-evidence

GreenWords

New services

— Development activity: Find something useful to add through renovation

— Verification and validation: Did the selection process cover

— Core requirements validated for quality and baselined

— Users’ perceptions of the real value of the service— Costs, benefits, and risks of adding the service— Payback and ROI of the new service— Impact of the new service on others sharing the

same production environment— Counter-evidence

GreenWords

Assess current application structure and code

— Development activity: Assess the application structure and code

— Verification and validation: Did the assessment cover

— Duplicate functionality— Dead functionality— Functionality that needs to be reengineered

independent of renovation— Maintainability of the code— Quality attributes, e.g. modularity, complexity, etc.— Adaptability of existing functionality to support new

services

GreenWords

Create a new functional specification

— Development activity: Create a functional specification incorporating new services

— Verification and validation: Does the new specification do the following?—Separate the existing functionality from new functionality

in a modular structure—Break down the functionality into manageable steps—Identify code to be reengineered for efficiency

GreenWords

Summing up

— Managing quality issues from the beginning offers the best guarantee of success at the end

— Focusing on quality management from the beginning is the surest way to reduce rework, speed payback and increase Return on Investment from every Legacy Renovation effort

GreenWords

Contact Us

For more information, contact us by:

Telephone, at 609 977-6214Email, at Info@GreenWords.net