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The
principle result of the project will be a
RENAISSANCE method handbook which
describes a generic method for software evolution
with variants which reflect the specific
requirements of 3GL and 4GL evolution. The method
handbook will be widely disseminated by ensuring
that it is published by a commercial publisher. The
handbook will include information about evolution
processes, system models and documentation for
evolution, and rules and guidance for applying the
method. It will also integrate the results of the
project which are embodied as consultancy reports
described below.
This
handbook will be supported by a set of more
detailed RENAISSANCE consultancy
reports and associated training materials
which may be used to develop internal and external
consultancy services in the areas of system
maintenance and evolution.
The RENAISSANCE reports will be important
documents which will give partners a market
advantage when selling consultancy in the areas
covered by the reports. The reports will be written
at a level of detail so that they may be used by
professional consultants providing services and
advice to clients with evolution and re-engineering
problems. The consultancy reports are exploitable
project results in their own right and we
expect that they will be exploited by partners
outside of the RENAISSANCE method.
Titles and summaries of the reports are:
- Architectural
modelling for evolution. This
report will be concerned with methods,
techniques and tools for modelling the
architecture of legacy systems, written in both
3GLs and 4GLs, in preparation for evolution.
Architectural modelling is important as many
legacy systems are relatively unstructured
either because of the development approach used
or because the development language (e.g. a 4GL)
does not include application structuring
constructs. As well as general advice on
modelling, the report will identify major
entities and relationships in 4GLs and show how
these can be modelled using existing methods and
tools.
Go to this document in the Method
Foundations document section
- Migrating
to distributed client-server
systems. This will provide an
overview of client server models and provide
advice and guidelines on transforming
centralised architectures to distributed
architectures. It will also include a discussion
of object brokers and how these may be used to
integrate reusable components with existing
systems and commercial software packages.
Go to this document in the Method
Foundations document section
- Evolution
planning. This will discuss
evolution strategies such as re-engineering
where a system is analysed and restructured,
refurbishment where sub-systems are selectively
replaced, and recycling where sub-systems are
salvaged from a system and packaged for use in a
re-engineered system. It will provide advice on
how to assess the risks of each of these
strategies in a particular context and suggest
how an economic assessment of each strategy
might be carried out. It will also consider
other non-functional considerations which must
be taken into account in the evolution planning
process such as the need for training of
end-users when a system is re-engineered, the
effect of re-engineering on other applications,
the influence of hardware changes, etc.
Go to this document in the Method
Foundations document section
These
reports will be supplemented by a standard
training delivery kit which will
include a set of instructor's notes, master
versions of overheard projector transparencies and
material for distribution to students. This
training delivery kit will consist of high
quality training material (transparencies,
instructor's notes, trainee's notes) for delivery
to external customers. This will support
training courses to be provided by the universities
and industrial partners involved in the project.
We do not propose to develop new CASE tool
support for the RENAISSANCE evolution method or
supporting consultancy reports. Rather, we will
investigate how the method may be used with
existing CASE tools which are in use by our
application partners and which are currently
available. To assist with this, we propose to
support a tool vendors forum for selected vendors
of forward and reverse engineering toolsets.
Members will be given advance information about the
method which they may take into account in
developing new versions of their tools and will be
able to see how their existing tools may be used
for RENAISSANCE method support.
This approach to presenting the project results
is the most effective for ensuring their
dissemination both within the companies in the
RENAISSANCE project and outside the consortium:
- The method handbook will be a public, widely
disseminated deliverable which will be made
generally available at very low cost (say 50ECUs
as the normal price of a book). Any organisation
will be able to adopt the advice presented
here. Experience of method providers (e.g.
Yourdon, Jackson, Rumbaugh) has been that making
the method public is the most effective way to
ensure acceptance and use of the method. It
generates interest in the approach and
consultancy business as companies explore the
applicability of the method in their
organisation and its introduction into their
software process.
- The consultancy reports will provide more
detailed information to supplement the method
handbook which will be available to the
RENAISSANCE partners to develop their own
consultancy businesses and which will be sold,
at the appropriate market price, to other
companies who wish more detailed information on
the RENAISSANCE method. Note that 47% of the
projects in which CGInn are involved are carried
out with other parts of the CAP Gemini Group and
that INTECS, Engineering and debis all plan to
expand their consultancy businesses in the area
of software re-engineering. The report on
evolution planning will be used for management
consultancy and in the negotiation phase of
projects; the reports of architectural modelling
and client-server migration will be used for
technical consultancy.
- The results of the project will be directly
applicable by the application partners as a
means of improving their own evolution and
re-engineering processes leading to better
quality software which can be produced more
quickly and at a lower price. CSH, debis and
Engineering are important applications
management companies so the impact of this
process improvement is not simply within the
application partners. Their external customers
will benefit through improved software quality
and faster response to change requests generated
by new system requirements. Telesoft's customers
for telecommunications management systems will
benefit in a similar way.
- Our goal of providing method support through
commercially available tools means that we do
not have the risks of new tool development and
marketing and that we do not tie ourselves to a
specific tool provider. This ensures that the
market for the method is not restricted to
companies which have invested in a specific tool
or development method.
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