Methodology for migration of legacy applications to new product architectures

A method for migrating legacy applications to new product architectures comprising the steps of:

• mapping and isolating pre-existing software for legacy applications targeted for migration and documenting corresponding functional requests and interfaces to external applications and operators;
• forming a migration plan identifying specific functional requests to be migrated and the migration status of the functional requests;
• installing new applications for the targeted pre-existing applications;
• installing a system controller comprising a functional conversion module that determines whether each functional request is identified in the migration plan and the status of the functional request, routes the functional request to the application software which is identified as being in control by the migration plan, and routes the functional request to the application software not identified as being in control by the migration plan unless the application software not identified as being in control by the migration plan is the pre-existing software which is identified as being shut off by the migration plan;
• breaking direct interfaces between the targeted pre-existing applications and the external applications and the operators;
• creating interfaces between the targeted pre-existing applications and the system controller, between the external applications and operators and the system controller, and between the new applications and the system controller;
• switching control of the functional requests for the targeted applications from the pre-existing software to the new system;
• and
• updating the migration plan.

A functional conversion module, consisting of a plurality of lines of computer code, for use in migrating a legacy application to a new application using new product architecture, the module comprising:

• a migration plan which identifies functional requests to be migrated, whether the legacy application or the new application is in control, and whether the legacy application has been shut off;
• a first path whereby functional requests determined not to be identified in the migration plan are routed to the legacy application and executed as requested;
• a second path whereby functional requests determined to be identified in the migration plan, where the legacy application is identified as being in control by the migration plan, are routed to the legacy application and executed as requested, such functional requests being subsequently translated for the new application and routed to and executed by the new application;
• and
• a third path whereby functional requests determined to be identified in the migration plan, where the new application is identified as being in control by the migration plan, are translated for, routed to, and executed by the new application, the functional requests where the legacy application is not identified as being shut off by the migration plan being subsequently routed to the legacy application and executed as requested.