RENAISSANCE Introduction The RENAISSANCE project is an ESPRIT funded research project into software reengineering and software evolution. This section provides an executive summary of the project objectives, its results and their exploitation. The RENAISSANCEWeb is funded through this ESPRIT project. Objectives The principle business objectives of the RENAISSANCE partners are to improve their capability to offer commercial services in the area of system evolution and to increase their return on investment in their software assets. To meet these objectives, the RENAISSANCE project has established the following technical objective: Support application evolution from centralised to distributed client-server architectures. Support the recovery of system family designs and subsequent evolution using existing CASE tools. Support evolution through the reuse of sub-systems recycled from existing systems. Provide a method for project managers to assess the costs, risks and benefits of evolution options. Integrate all of this support into a systematic method to support system evolution. This research is driven by a number of problems inherent in the current state of the industry. These problems inform a rationale for the project. Results A set of RENAISSANCE consultancy reports. These will cover architectural modelling, client-server evolution, evolution risks economics, the reverse engineering of system families and the recycling of reusable code components. The consultancy reports will provide detailed advice for consultants who are developing services and users who are applying the project results. An integrated RENAISSANCE evolution method to guide the process of system evolution. This will be distinguished from other re-engineering projects by its focus on architectural evolution and the recovery of designs of system families in 4GLs rather than the more common COBOL or FORTRAN. Exploitation The results of the RENAISSANCE project will be exploited in following ways: Direct exploitation of the results by the application partners to improve their own applications management, evolution, re-engineering and reuse processes. Application requirements will drive the project, so that the method developed will be immediately applicable by the application partners. Through consultancy on system evolution, re-engineering, reuse and client-server transition by partners. This consultancy will exploit the RENAISSANCE reports. The method handbook will disseminate the method and will help market associated consultancy activities. The project work is positioned in important and growing market areas (re-engineering, client-server migration, 4GLs) so has a firm market opportunity which will pull the project results through to exploitation.