Contemporary Software Modernization: Perspectives and Challenges to Deal with Legacy Systems
Wesley K. G. Assun\c{c}\~ao, Luciano Marchezan, Alexander Egyed,, Rudolf Ramler

TL;DR
This paper reviews the evolving field of software modernization, emphasizing the need for flexible, up-to-date approaches to update legacy systems and proposing a research agenda with key challenges.
Contribution
It highlights the limitations of existing modernization approaches and advocates for a comprehensive research agenda to advance the field.
Findings
Current approaches are too scenario-specific and inflexible.
Many modernization methods are outdated and not aligned with modern development.
The paper proposes 10 research challenges to guide future studies.
Abstract
Software modernization is an inherent activity of software engineering, as technology advances and systems inevitably become outdated. The term "software modernization" emerged as a research topic in the early 2000s, with a differentiation from traditional software evolution. Studies on this topic became popular due to new programming paradigms, technologies, and architectural styles. Given the pervasive nature of software today, modernizing legacy systems is paramount to provide users with competitive and innovative products and services. Despite the large amount of work available in the literature, there are significant limitations: (i) proposed approaches are strictly specific to one scenario or technology, lacking flexibility; (ii) most of the proposed approaches are not aligned with the current modern software development scenario; and (iii) due to a myriad of proposed…
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Taxonomy
TopicsSoftware System Performance and Reliability · Big Data and Business Intelligence · Scientific Computing and Data Management
