| Title: |
Service Portfolio Planning and Legacy Modernization |
| Author: |
Mike Gilbert |
| Publication Date: |
22 August 2006 |
| Report Type: |
Journal |
| Report Class: |
Best Practice |
| Abstract: |
For many organizations, legacy applications represent a critical, long term investment that forms the core of business operations. The major question for enterprises is how to enable legacy applications in the new service portfolio. Without proper planning, large legacy portfolios threaten to undermine the goals of the SOA, as ad-hoc services created from legacy applications compromise the architecture and increase dependency. In this report, we advise on how legacy assets can be re-used to provision services in a planned manner. Building on our previous guidance for Service Portfolio Planning we provide a structured and strategic approach to legacy modernization. |
| Backgrounder: |
Implementing software around SOA principles requires careful planning. Service Portfolio Planning (SPP) provides a formal framework to help document and plan the introduction and phased roll-out of new IT services based on an SOA design and infrastructure.
John Dodd laid the foundations of SPP in March 20051 and subsequently extended this in September 20052 . To date, SPP has taken account of legacy resources as candidate implementations when identifying services for the portfolio plan for a specific domain. For many organizations, legacy resources may be extensive, complex and critical, and many are undertaking (or have plans to undertake) a legacy modernization initiative. Legacy modernization and SOA planning teams should co-ordinate activities to ensure that these key initiatives do not compete for resources and strategy.
In this report we describe the adoption of legacy into an SOA plan from two perspectives. In the first of these, we provide guidance on the use of non-invasive legacy modernization tools and techniques to inform the development of an SPP. This addresses the needs of organizations that have legacy and an expectation that it will be used where practical as the implementation behind newly published services alongside services acquired from other sources to meet the needs of the SPP.
In the second, we address the needs of organizations that are struggling with legacy and are considering, or have embarked upon, a more radical legacy modernization initiative using invasive as well as non-invasive tools and techniques and which embraces the architectural principles of SOA. We show how SPP can be engaged in such a legacy modernization project to underpin the definition of services based on legacy applications.
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| Report Size: |
9 pages |
| Report Access Type: |
 | Silver/Gold (Premium) |
|
| Available for separate purchase |
Single copies of recent CBDI Journals may be purchased |
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