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From: roelof@idca.tds.PHILIPS.nl (R. Vuurboom)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: maintenance strategies/tools
Message-ID: <217@ssp1.idca.tds.philips.nl>
Date: 28 Jul 89 12:06:04 GMT
Distribution: comp.software-eng
Organization: Philips Telecommunication and Data Systems, The Netherlands
Lines: 52


Apologies if this has been discussed before. I'm posting this for a friend.


A large institute here in Holland is looking at ways to document/channel 
expertise for maintenance of very large transaction processing programs.  

These program suites process in the order of 100 thousands/millions of 
transactions a day (or so I am told).

Due to programmer turnover and program size and inadequate documentation
the usual maintenance woes are being felt.

The institute wants to "reverse engineer" to an adequate maintenance
environment.

Does anyone have any experience with trying to "reverse engineer" to 
a proper maintenance environment? (or know anybody who does?)

What methods/strategies were employed?

What were the lessons learned (and perhaps even more important 
the mistakes made :-)?


For example, did you decide to try and reverse engineer the specs and/or
designs or was this considered unnecessary or on the contrary absolutely
vital?

Did you develop/use identifier cross-referencing or other related techniques?

What other tools did you use/can you get on the market for this sort 
of work?

How can you phase this reverse engineering process viz. which activities
are most important and which should be done first?

Which activities/phases/goals should you forget about attempting?

I believe the current idea is to come up with some sort of "expert system"
to handle (some of) the maintenance problems. I personally have my doubts
about such an approach and would be glad to hear any positive or negative
experiences/opinions in this (or related) areas.

All opinions/pointers/experiences/flames welcome.

Thanks in advance.
-- 
I don't know what the question means, but the answer is yes...
(overheard on comp.lang.misc)
Roelof Vuurboom  SSP/V3   Philips TDS Apeldoorn, The Netherlands   +31 55 432226
domain: roelof@idca.tds.philips.nl             uucp:  ...!mcvax!philapd!roelof