Software Re-Engineering
Lecture 1
Course Introduction
Course Title Software Re-Engineering
Course Category SE Core
Credit Hours 3+0
Lecture Duration 3 hours per week
Semester Duration 16 weeks
Course Assessment
Contents Weightage
Quizzes 18%
Assignments 7%
Project 15%
Midterm 20%
Final 40%
Books
"Software Reengineering" by Robert S. Arnold
"Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code" by Martin
Fowler
"Legacy Code: A Programmer's Guide to Reengineering" by Michael
Feathers
Course Objectives
1. Understand the need for software re-engineering and the contexts
in which it is applied.
2. Apply reverse engineering techniques to understand the structure
and behavior of existing software systems.
3. Restructure and refactor software systems to improve quality
attributes of a software system.
4. Manage the process of migrating legacy systems to modern
platforms.
5. Evaluate and use various re-engineering tools and techniques
effectively.
Course Learning Outcomes
1. Explain the concepts and techniques of software re-engineering.
2. Apply re-engineering techniques to maintain and modify software
systems.
3. Analyze and understand maintenance-related problems.
4. Perform complex design re-engineering and reverse engineering
problems.
1. Introduction to Software Re-engineering
2. Reverse Engineering
3. Program Understanding
Course 4. Software Restructuring
Content 5. Refactoring Techniques
6. Software Migration
7. Re-engineering Legacy Systems
8. Impact Analysis
9. Re-engineering Tools and Automation
10. Software Quality Assurance in Re-
Course engineering
Content 11. Re-engineering for Software Security
12. Case Studies and Industry Practices
13. Emerging Trends in Re-engineering
What do they all have in common?
11
Software
• Software refers to computer programs, documentation, and associated
data that enable computers and electronic devices to perform specific
tasks, incorporating algorithms, user interfaces, and development
tools.
• Saudi Arabia's annual oil (2023) export revenue was estimated to be around
$326 billion USD.
• India's annual (2023) software export revenue was estimated to be around
$180-190 billion USD.
• Pakistan’s annual (2023) software export revenue was estimated to be around
$2.6 billion USD.
Software Engineering vs Software Re-
engineering
• Software engineering
• The discipline of designing and building software systems from scratch.
• Software re-engineering
• The process of improving and restructuring existing software systems to
enhance their quality, performance, maintainability, and other attributes.
• It involves analyzing, understanding, and modifying existing software systems
to meet new requirements, address issues, or adapt to changes in technology.
When to re-engineer
• High technical debt
• Performance issues
• Scalability needs
• Security vulnerabilities
• Difficulty in adding new features
• Compliance with new standards
• Increased maintenance costs
• Integration with new technologies
• User dissatisfaction
Importance of Re-engineering
1. Enhances Software Maintainability and Scalability
• Maintainability: Software re-engineering improves the structure and organization of
the code, making it easier for developers to understand, modify, and extend.
• Scalability: By re-engineering the software, you can refactor the code and system
architecture to handle increased workloads or expanded number of users.
2. Reduces Technical Debt and System Complexity
• Technical Debt: Technical debt refers to the accumulation of poor design, code
shortcuts, and other suboptimal decisions made during software development.
• System Complexity: Over time, software systems can become increasingly complex
due to the addition of new features, integration with other systems, and changes in
business requirements.
Importance of Re-engineering
3. Cost-Effective Compared to Developing New Software from Scratch
• Developing entirely new software can be time-consuming and expensive. This
approach saves both time and money by avoiding the need to start from scratch.
Additionally, re-engineering can be done incrementally, allowing businesses to
continue using the system while improvements are made.
4. Helps in Adapting to New Technologies and Business Requirements
• Adapting to New Technologies: The technology landscape is constantly evolving, and
businesses need to keep up with the latest advancements to remain competitive.
• Meeting Business Requirements: As businesses grow and evolve, their needs
change.
Software Re-engineering Process
Inventory
Analysis
Forward Document
Engineering Restructuring
Data Reverse
Restructuring Engineering
Code
Restructuring
Inventory Analysis
• It is a process to assess the existing software assets within an organization.
It involves taking details of all the software systems currently in use,
evaluating their performance, and determining which systems are
outdated, inefficient, or no longer align with the organization’s goals.
• Identification: Identify all software systems currently in use.
• Evaluation: Assess each system's functionality, performance, and alignment with
current business needs.
• Prioritization: Rank systems based on the need for re-engineering, considering
factors like cost, risk, potential benefits, and resource availability.
• Decision Making: Decide which systems to re-engineer, retire, or replace.
• A prioritized list of systems or components that require re-engineering,
along with a roadmap for addressing them.
Document Restructuring
• Over time, software documentation can become outdated, incomplete, or
inconsistent with the actual code and system behavior. Document restructuring
aims to bring documentation up to date, making it an accurate reflection of the
current system. This step is crucial because clear, accurate documentation helps
developers, maintainers, and stakeholders understand the system better.
• Review: Review existing documentation for accuracy and completeness.
• Update: Update documentation to reflect the current state of the system, including code
comments, system design documents, user manuals, and technical specifications.
• Reorganization: Reorganize documentation to improve readability and usability, ensuring it is
easy to navigate and understand.
• Standardization: Apply consistent standards and formats across all documentation.
• Comprehensive, accurate, and well-organized documentation that matches the
current software system and supports ongoing maintenance and future
development.
Reverse Engineering
• It Involves analyzing and understanding existing software to extract
knowledge or recreate documentation when the source code or
design is unavailable.
• Begins with an existing software system or source code.
• Focuses on understanding the internal workings of the system by
analyzing its source code or behavior.
• Aims to understand, analyze, or modify an existing system.
• Used to recover lost code, analyze competitors' products, or migrate
legacy systems.
• Involves decompilers, debuggers, and code analysis tools.
Code Restructuring
• It involves modifying the existing code to improve its internal structure
without changing its external behavior. The goal is to make the code more
readable, maintainable, and efficient, reducing technical debt and
facilitating easier future modifications.
• Refactoring: Improve code readability and structure by simplifying complex code,
renaming variables and functions for clarity, and breaking down large functions or
classes into smaller, more manageable pieces.
• Optimization: Enhance code performance by optimizing algorithms, reducing
redundancy, and improving resource management.
• Modularity: Increase the modularity of the code, making it easier to reuse and
maintain.
• Error Handling: Improve error handling and exception management to make the
code more robust.
• A cleaner, more maintainable source code that is easier to understand and
modify, leading to more efficient future development and maintenance.
Data Restructuring
• It focuses on improving the organization, management, and storage of the
software's data. This step is essential for enhancing the efficiency,
reliability, and scalability of data operations within the system.
• Data Model Optimization: Redesign data models to improve performance and
reduce complexity. This might involve normalizing databases, optimizing indexes, or
restructuring data tables.
• Data Migration: Transfer data to a new structure or system, ensuring data integrity
and consistency throughout the process.
• Data Cleaning: Identify and remove inconsistencies, redundancies, and errors in the
data to improve its quality.
• Integration: Ensure that restructured data integrates seamlessly with other systems
and applications.
• A more efficient, reliable, and scalable data structure that enhances overall
system performance and supports future growth.
Forward Engineering
• Involves designing and developing software from specifications or
requirements. It is the traditional process of creating software.
• Begins with requirements, design documents, and specifications.
• Follows a systematic approach of coding, testing, and implementation
based on a pre-defined plan.
• Aims to create a new system or software from scratch.
• Involves programming languages, design tools, and compilers.
Re-engineering approaches
Automated Source Code Conversion
• This approach involves using automated tools to convert the source
code from one programming language or platform to another.
• The goal is to modernize the code without altering its logic or
structure significantly.
• Cost: This is typically the least expensive option since it relies heavily
on automation and involves minimal manual intervention.
Automated Program Restructuring
• This approach goes a step further by automatically restructuring the
code to improve its internal organization and maintainability.
• This may include refactoring code to enhance readability, efficiency,
or modularity while preserving the original functionality.
• Cost: The cost is moderate, as it involves more complex automated
processes than simple code conversion.
Automated Restructuring with Manual
Changes
• In this approach, automated restructuring tools are used in
conjunction with manual adjustments.
• While the automated tools handle the bulk of the restructuring,
developers manually tweak the code to address issues that
automation cannot handle, such as optimizing performance, fixing
bugs, or adapting to specific business logic.
• Cost: This approach is more costly than pure automation due to the
added manual work.
Program and Data Restructuring
• This approach involves restructuring not just the code but also the
underlying data models and databases.
• It may include redesigning how data is stored, accessed, and
managed to improve overall system performance and scalability.
• Cost: The cost is relatively high because it involves significant changes
to both the program and data structures.
Restructuring Plus Architectural Changes
• This is the most extensive and costly approach, involving not only
restructuring the code and data but also making significant changes
to the system's architecture.
• This might include transitioning to a new software architecture style
(e.g., from monolithic to microservices), incorporating new
technologies, or completely redesigning how different components of
the system interact.
• Cost: This approach has the highest cost because it involves a
complete overhaul of the system.
Questions?
