Interview: Overcoming Migration Challenges

Companies across the globe are continuing to allow legacy technology negatively impact their business because they either don’t know what to do or feel it is too risky or costly to modernise their applications. The reality is that there will come a point when they cannot ignore it anymore and they have to do something about their legacy systems.

Using the Legacy Bridge technology, one of our customers carried out a HOOD and Ada83 migration in to UML and Ada95 so that they could enhance existing their safety critical systems. We asked them about the migration and how they used technology to overcome their challenges they faced.  

What was the main reason for migration?

There were three main reasons:

1. To have a single toolset for both Software Analysis and Software Design work
2. To reduce the number of toolsets in use on the project (thus reducing maintenance renewal costs)
3. To move to a company preferred toolset
4. To increase integration with other company preferred toolsets (i.e. DOORS and Dimensions CM)

What were the alternatives to using Legacy Bridge?

The Rhapsody in Ada inbuilt reverse engineering tools or to develop our own in house migration tools however this was deemed early on to be too expensive.

What was the deciding factor to choose Objektum Solutions and Legacy Bridge to migrate?

Objektum Solutions had already been through similar exercises of migrating from CP-HOOD to UML albeit to a different UML toolset with another organisation similar to ours. Legacy Bridge has the facility to bring across our HOOD artefacts, as well as synchronising the design with the current code.

What time savings did Legacy Bridge bring?

Once it had been proven that Legacy Bridge could correctly analyse our HOOD and our Ada, the process of migration and synchronising with the code took only a couple of hours per model.

And, how was it working with the team at Objektum Solutions?

The support provided by Objektum was excellent, with most problems being resolved with days (if not hours) of being reported.  This enabled us to keep up the impetus of the migration process without have to wait too long for tool updates 
 

Another colleague also commented saying "The turnaround time for problem resolution was exceptional. This has been possible with the tremendous knowledge the team have of the product including HOOD, UML and Ada."

What benefits does migrating to UML give you for the future?

We now have both our software analysis and software implementation models in the same toolset; with both of these models integrated with our requirements database and our configuration management system.  All three toolsets are “current” toolsets widely used across the company and across industries.

Will code generation be a consideration going forward?

Code generation has to be ultimate aim; but for now we are happy that what is in Rhapsody can be shown (via the compare functionality) to be a reasonably accurate representation of the code.

Obsolete Programming Languages

Fiona provides us with another insightful post on programming and where we go next once a language has become non-existent....

With technology changing and advancing so rapidly, the programming languages which sit behind the gadgets we love are also evolving and changing. Languages often become out-dated and begin to cover less and less of technology’s needs, for example the widespread use of the web has led to the influx of new web languages which have differing features than the languages developed in the 70s through the 90s. So what is the lifespan of a programming language? When does a programming language become obsolete? And also where do we go next once a language has become non-existent?

Currently, it seems that Pascal, Turbo Pascal and VB6 have been completely written off as redundant. The languages which could presently be described as in decline or progressing towards another language include C, C++, Perl and Delphi and perhaps even Java maybe losing pace to Ruby. So why when languages are in decline do we still find developers vigorously maintaining and coding using the same languages? Well a manual software migration process is costly and time-consuming to say the least. In fact it is the laborious and repetitive task of rewriting lines of code which frustrates developers and prevents them from programming in the language they truly desire. 

So let’s explore the likely advantages of an automated model driven approach to language to language software migration. Aside from the previously mentioned cost and time involved in a full manual migration there are often other issues and failings with this type of process. The scope of the project is difficult to contain, new requirements often present themselves replacing existing requirements, and eventually the new system differs from the existing legacy system. An automated approach enforces rules and consistency which will preserve the quality of the code.

However, a move to a model-driven development environment is an effective alternative to this process. Using this environment will result in faster software migration which may well show which languages are actually redundant and lead to future obsolescence of languages at a much faster rate. Perhaps, this will radically change the way we view programming languages as they become more progressive and adaptable. Will we begin to see the days of teams of programmers battling with boundless lines of code as an ancient practice? Watch this space…

Avionics and Defence Electronics Europe 2011

Just a quick piece copied across from our News to let you all know that we'll be in Munich, Germany very soon! 

  

After a strategic move to relocate the show to Munich, Avionics Europe 2011 is looking set to be a good show. We’re particularly looking forward to meeting our industry peers at the exhibition as well meeting some new people! The conference looks like it will impress and we’ll definitely be heading to hear the Managing Obsolescence talk as this is something we have been spending a lot of time working on through our Legacy Bridge Suite which can enable projects and organisations to automatically move away from legacy systems into more modern methodologies such as UML.

 Our Technical Director Derek Russell will be making an appearance and discussing How to Manage Obsolescence using Technology in the Exhibitor Presentation area, times to be confirmed. He will be taking a look at how a large defence company used automatic migration to move from HOOD and Ada 83 to UML and Ada 95 whilst mitigating risk, protecting financial investment and protecting design integrity.

We’re based on Stand C5 right next to the Exhibitor Presentation space where will be doing demos of the Legacy Bridge Suite technology. It has been described by clients as “wizardry”, “the most innovative piece of technology they have seen in a long time” and one client has even said “It’s like all my dreams have come true”. So come to our stand and see it for yourself!

We’ve also grown our training business and have a multitude of new courses including Systems Engineering using MatLab and a range of MoDAF courses. We have also introduced a range of Personal Development courses due to popular demand. These courses set out to support teams to work more effectively and are adapted to deal specifically with people working in our industry.

Visit Stand C5  to chat to either Derek Russell or Ajay Patel. If you would like to set up a meeting with either of them please contact us. 

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About the Show

AVIONICS EUROPE

Avionics Europe is the premier platform for discussing commercial and defence related avionics issues in Europe; bringing together the most influential and high-ranking members from the market and has become the ‘must attend’ event on the Avionics calendar.

Avionics Expo allows key decision makers, scientists, technologists, engineers and procurement specialists from within the leading avionics manufacturers, suppliers, integrators, airlines, operators and air-framers, prime contractors and end users to discover and discuss the latest issues and developments affecting avionics technology.

DEFENCE ELECTRONICS

Defence Electronics aims to provide a unique platform for defence electronics industry, including systems, components and services covering land, air and sea based systems.

Senior level project leaders/directors and senior engineers involved in mission systems, planning, design and specifications from prime contractors and system integrators.

In addition visitors would be from the leading builders and framers of vehicle and mobile communication systems and end users such as international defence agencies, departments or ministries of defence, dignitaries and officers from the armed forces who have influence and purchasing decisions.