A UK company has developed software designed to extend
the life of legacy products by building a model of how they are
used.
The Erudine Behaviour
Engine can build up representation of the business logic held
within legacy applications. In many businesses, such information
has been long lost. The software is designed to look at how
end-users interact with the legacy code it also examines the screen
output in response to user input, all without having to access the
application source code.
In doing so, Erudine says its Behaviour Engine generates
business rules for the legacy code.
The engine can then test these rules with a series of cases
presented to expert users - their behaviour can fine tune the rules
and highlights any conflicts. Legacy applications often require new
code to comply with legislative changes or new business
contexts.
It can also help build applications from scratch more
efficiently, the supplier said. Although it still needs basic user
requirements, the system can carry out business tasks, detailed
design and some coding using case-based knowledge capture.
Roy Illsley, senior research analyst at Butler Group, said,
"This looks like a good way of prolonging the live of legacy
applications. It sounds extremely good, but I am sceptical that it
is as easy and fast as they say. We will need to wait five years or
so until it is more widely used."
Further information:
www.erudine.com
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