BES Playbook

1.2 Play 2: Collect, analyze, and assess the existing (legacy) application’s technical baseline

Once Play 1 is complete, the existing (legacy) application technical baseline must be collected, reviewed, analyzed, and understood. Many applications will not be documented completely or accurately enough to allow for the necessary analysis and assessment required for developing a modernization solution and plan. In this case, technical baseline documentation gaps must be closed, or an automated discovery tool must be used to extract the technical baseline from the production application. The best approach is to collect the existing documentation and artifacts, as well as use an automated discovery tool, and then correlate the technical information.

Checklist

  • Gather technical baseline documentation and engineering artifacts (including models) from the application owner and team.
  • Use an automated discovery tool to obtain the technical baseline from the actual production application. For example, the Micro Focus Enterprise Analyzer tool can discover, evaluate, and document applications, their business value, and their interdependencies across the entire organization.
  • Create a new technical library of technical baseline information to be used during the modernization project.
  • Review all information and develop updated architectural framework views of the application to ensure all stakeholders understand the application’s current technical baseline.
  • Run automated tools against the code baseline to understand the quality of the existing baseline. These tools also provide insight on the steps that may correct quality issues. More information on these tools is provided in the complete playbook.

Key Questions

  • Is the technical baseline complete? Are there important gaps? How can the gaps be closed?
  • How can the right automated discovery tool be used to improve the quality of the current (legacy) technical baseline?
  • How much technical debt exists with the current legacy application? How should this technical debt be accounted for?
feedback