EKERS (Expert Knowledge Elicitation for Reengineering Software)

The USAF has many legacy systems that are increasingly difficult and costly to maintain or extend. Migrating a legacy system to a new platform, technology, or architecture can provide significant benefits, including lower maintenance and operating costs, improved scalability, improved security, and additional functionality. Migration, however, presents many options and associated challenges, which affect success. Legacy software systems can suffer from tightly coupled architectures, dependencies on outdated technology, rampant security vulnerabilities, insufficient documentation, and a shortage of skilled/knowledgeable staff. The Expert Knowledge Elicitation for Reengineering Software (EKERS) uses knowledge elicitation (KE) techniques to capture legacy system knowledge from human experts (e.g., original developers, maintainers, users, system administrators) and merge it with source code analysis. This provides a holistic understanding of the legacy system allowing migration planners to better identify what modifications need to be done and where the risks and challenges lay.