Varlet: Human-Centered Tool Support for Database Reengineering

Software evolution and maintenance problems might be caused by all kinds of ne w or changed requirements. However, McCabe [McC98] has identified a number of requirements, which are currently of special importance because they are responsible for significant mass changes in today’s business software. Among these central requirements are the Year-2000 problem [Mar97a], the Euro-conversion problem [Gro98], and the ability to compete on a global, electronic mark et. The primary concern of all these requirements is the issue of ho w b usiness data should adequately be represented in softw are systems. The addressed problems range from simple questions, e.g., for the number of digits that are necessary to represent a date (Y ear-2000 problem), up to complex architectural decisions, e.g., ho w to federate data maintained by diverse (formerly autonomous) information systems and integrate these systems with the Web to facilitate electronic commerce. If a legacy software system (LSS) has to be adapted to one of these requirements, a conceptual documentation of its data structure (DS) is thus often a necessary prerequisite to achie ve the maintenance goal. Moreover, a conceptual DS is an excellent starting point for the migration to modern programming languages, as the y are usually data-oriented [GK93]. This is because the conceptual DS reflects major b usiness rules but is fairly independent from procedural application code.

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