COBOL Software Modernization

Franck Barbier (www.FranckBarbier.com) is both at Netfective Technology as scientific consultant and full Professor in Computer Science at the university of Pau (France). He wrote more than 100 papers and books in French and English, for Hermes Science Publishing especially. He was Director of the CS Research Department of the university of Pau (LIUPPA) from 2000 to 2004; He was Deputy Head of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector at the French Research Agency, a.k.a. ANR (i.e., "French NSF") from 2009 to 2012. He is a recognized expert worldwide in model driven development. Jean-Luc Recoussine is the general manager of the Blu Age Institute within Blu Age Corporation (a Netfective Technology subsidiary and USA company located in Plano, Texas, USA). Blu Age Institute is a training center for Blu Age products and MDD approach. He moved to the USA in 2011 after spending 6 years in the Blu Age Center of Casablanca (Morocco) where he was member of the founding team and in charge of setting up the Blu Age Support Center. He is an expert in model driven application transformation using Blu Age tools and the methodology.

• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiACRONYMS    xiiiINTRODUCTION   xviiCHAPTER 1. SOFTWARE MODERNIZATION: A BUSINESS VISION 11.1. Software-based business 11.2. Information-driven business 21.2.1. Adaptation to business 41.3. The case of tourism industry 71.4. IT progress acceleration 111.5. Legacy world  131.5.1. Exiting the legacy world 151.5.2. Legacy world professionals 161.6. Conclusions 18CHAPTER 2. SOFTWARE MODERNIZATION: TECHNICAL ENVIRONMENT 212.1. Legacy system  212.2. Modernization  222.2.1. Replacement 242.2.2. Migration  252.2.3. Modernization versus migration 272.2.4. The superiority of white-box modernization 292.3. Software engineering principles underpinning modernization 312.3.1. Re-engineering in action 332.3.2. Re-engineering challenges    362.4. Conclusions 37CHAPTER 3. STATUS OF COBOL LEGACY APPLICATIONS 393.1. OLTP versus batch programs 413.2. Mainframes 423.3. Data-driven design 433.4. COBOL degeneration principle 443.5. COBOL pitfalls 463.6. Middleware for COBOL 473.7. Moving COBOL OLTP/batch programs to Java 493.8. COBOL is not a friend of Java, and vice versa  513.9. Spaghetti code  523.9.1. Spaghetti code sample 533.9.2. Code comprehension 563.10. No longer COBOL? 573.11. Conclusions  58CHAPTER 4. SERVICE-ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE (SOA) 594.1. Software architecture versus information system urbanization 594.2. Software architecture evolution 604.3. COBOL own style of software architecture 614.4. The one-way road to SOA 644.5. Characterization of SOA 664.5.1. Preliminary note 664.5.2. From objects to components and services     664.5.3. Type versus instance 674.5.4. Distribution concerns 684.5.5. Functional grouping 684.5.6. Granularity 694.5.7. Technology-centrism 704.5.8. Composition at design time (… is definitely modeling) 724.5.9. Composition at runtime 774.6. Conclusions 78CHAPTER 5. SOA IN ACTION 795.1. Service as materialized component 815.2. Service as Internet resource 855.2.1. Pay-per-use service 875.2.2. Free service 895.2.3. Data feed service 905.3. High-end SOA 935.4. SOA challenges 955.5. The Cloud   975.5.1. COBOL in the Cloud 985.5.2. Computing is just resource consumption   995.5.3. Cloud computing is also resource consumption, but… 1015.5.4. Everything as a service 1025.5.5. SOA in the Cloud 1045.5.6. The cloud counterparts 1055.6. Conclusions 106CHAPTER 6. MODEL-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT (MDD) 1096.1. Why MDD? 1106.2. Models, intuitively 1116.3. Models, formally 1126.4. Models as computerized objects 1136.5. Model-based productivity 1186.6. Openness through standards 1186.6.1. Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) 1206.7. Models and people 1216.8. Metamodeling  1236.8.1. Metamodeling, put simply    1236.9. Model transformation 1256.10. Model transformation by example 1256.11. From contemplative to executable models  1266.12. Model execution in action 1276.13. Toward Domain-Specific Modeling Languages (DSMLs) 1296.14. Conclusions  132CHAPTER 7. MODEL-DRIVEN SOFTWARE MODERNIZATION 1357.1. Reverse and forward engineering are indivisible components of modernization  1377.2. Architecture-Driven Modernization (ADM) 1387.3. ASTM and KDM at a glance 1427.4. Variations on ASTM 1467.5. From ASTM to KDM 1487.6. Variations on KDM 1497.7. Automation 1537.8. Conclusions 153CHAPTER 8. SOFTWARE MODERNIZATION METHOD AND TOOL 1558.1. BLU AGE overview 1568.2. The toolbox 1588.2.1. BLU AGE format required for forward engineering 1608.2.2. Reverse tooling 1628.3. BLU AGE as an ADM- and MDA-compliant tool 1708.4. Modernization workflow 1738.4.1. Initialization 1738.4.2. Realization 1828.4.3. Validation and deployment    1878.5. Conclusions 188CHAPTER 9. CASE STUDY 1919.1. Case study presentation 1929.2. Legacy modernization in action 1959.2.1. Creating modernization project 1969.2.2. Better dealing with the legacy material      1969.2.3. Strategy for modernizing screens  2029.2.4. Strategy for modernizing data items 2039.2.5. Creating forward project 2049.2.6. Entity extraction 2079.2.7. From screens to pages and UI components  2099.3. Annotations 2099.4. Pattern definition 2119.4.1. Pattern for simple statements   2119.4.2. Patterns for operation calls    2139.4.3. Patterns for operation calls with arguments      2149.4. Database exchange modernization   2169.5. Transmodeling 2199.6. Transmodeling complex functionalities 2269.6.1. Transmodeling the “custCost” program 2289.6.2. Modernizing “Add a new reservation”  2339.7. Application generation and testing   2349.8. Conclusions 235BIBLIOGRAPHY    239INDEX  243