Reengineering (software)
Encyclopedia
The reengineering of software was described by Chikofsky and Cross in their 1990 paper, as "The examination and alteration of a system to reconstitute it in a new form". Less formally, reengineering is the modification of a software system that takes place after it has been reverse engineered, generally to add new functionality, or to correct errors.
This entire process is often erroneously referred to as reverse engineering
; however, it is more accurate to say that reverse engineering is the initial examination of the system, and reengineering is the subsequent modification.
Re-engineering is mostly used in the context where a legacy system
is involved. Software systems are evolving on high rate because there more research to make the better so therefore software system in most cases, legacy software needs to operate on a new computing platform.
'Re-engineering' is a set of activities that are carried out to re-structure a legacy system to a new system with better functionalities and conform to the hardware and software quality constraint.
This entire process is often erroneously referred to as reverse engineering
Reverse engineering
Reverse engineering is the process of discovering the technological principles of a device, object, or system through analysis of its structure, function, and operation...
; however, it is more accurate to say that reverse engineering is the initial examination of the system, and reengineering is the subsequent modification.
Re-engineering is mostly used in the context where a legacy system
Legacy system
A legacy system is an old method, technology, computer system, or application program that continues to be used, typically because it still functions for the users' needs, even though newer technology or more efficient methods of performing a task are now available...
is involved. Software systems are evolving on high rate because there more research to make the better so therefore software system in most cases, legacy software needs to operate on a new computing platform.
'Re-engineering' is a set of activities that are carried out to re-structure a legacy system to a new system with better functionalities and conform to the hardware and software quality constraint.
See also
- Code refactoring
- Rewrite (programming)Rewrite (programming)A rewrite in computer programming is the act or result of re-implementing a large portion of existing functionality without re-use of its source code. When the rewrite is not using existing code at all, it is common to speak of a rewrite from scratch...
- Program transformationProgram transformationA program transformation is any operation that takes a computer program and generates another program. In many cases the transformed program is required to be semantically equivalent to the original, relative to a particular formal semantics and in fewer cases the transformations result in programs...
- DMS Software Reengineering ToolkitDMS Software Reengineering ToolkitThe DMS Software Reengineering Toolkit is a proprietary set of program transformation tools available for automating custom source program analysis, modification, translation or generation of software systems for arbitrary mixtures of source languages for large scale software systems.DMS has been...