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Abstract:
Software analysis, documentation, migration, upgrades or replacements are daunting and risky endeavors because they are primarily manual and time-consuming. EvolveWare's S2T Technology provides a solution to these problems with tools that automate the process up to 90%, thus reducing the time and cost of such initiatives by as much as 40-60%.
S2T Technology allows the development of tools to transform any Source-2-any Target. These tools generate standard XML representation of any source code business rules, business processes and data model in component and object form so as to (a) serve as input to any product that has an API with XML support (e.g. BRE tools, modeling & code generation tools etc.) (b) be transformed into a target model or code using a simple XML transformer or (c) be used to derive BPEL and SOA components that can be orchestrated using BPM tools.
For documentation purposes the source code's data model is made available in SQL DDL format, the program logic as pseudo code and the business rules in Plain English and in Flowchart format, allowing compliance with legislated standards like Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA in the U.S. and BASEL II in Europe.
Notable factors that differentiate the S2T Technology tools are its discovery and extraction process of the input code, followed by the high rate of automation in its conversion process.
Demands on Information Technology (IT)
A global economy with rising government regulations mandates on-time execution of strategy, supported by corporate documentation and efficiencies. To meet these goals IT organizations have begun focusing on key business objectives that include:
1. Compliance with Government regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley
2. Enterprise wide connectivity to facilitate data sharing
3. A lower total cost of ownership of their application portfolio
4. A shortened time for deployment of new technologies
The result is an initiative to transform existing software, developed using proprietary technologies, to lower-cost, easily maintainable systems running on relatively small, inexpensive but high performance computers.
In terms of platform environment and technology, the trend is to transform proprietary software to open system standards involving model-based development which use component architecture to enable SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) over ESB (Enterprise Service Bus). These systems provide ease of use since they can be orchestrated using Business Process Management (BPM) tools that are fast invading the market place.
The Problem
Businesses of companies, governments and agencies evolve over the years. So do government regulations. Either or both of these scenarios result in changes - additions, deletions or modifications of rules that govern the mode of doing business. These business rules are embedded in the source code of software applications that run an organization's operations. At the time of installation, embedded business rules are typically documented and placed in a repository. However, as rules change and applications are modified, these changes are rarely documented, and they get ?lost? over the years. Further, as companies merge, or are acquired, the surviving company is left with disparate systems to run their operations. In most such instances the systems that are inherited come with little to no documentation.
Extracting ?lost? knowledge from software applications is of paramount importance so as to:
- Comply with Government regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA & BASEL II
- Maintain, support and upgrade them
- Move them to modern platforms/environments
- Replace them
- Enhance them
- Understand the impact of changes that may be proposed
- Monitor for security breaches
Unfortunately the best available option to discover and extract information from software applications has primarily been through manual efforts, with automation tools serving as aids to that effort. These initiatives are tedious, long-term and high risk. Companies have tried to lower their monetary cost by outsourcing such projects to offshore service companies. However, the time and risk to completion has remained unchanged at best.
The Solution
Innovation in the manufacturing sector was fueled by automation that resulted in lower cost of production with faster and repeatable processes. Likewise automated documentation and transformation of software applications is the answer to meet the rapidly changing demands of IT Departments in a dynamic world.
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