Assessing Software Replacement Success: An Industrial Case Study Applying Four Approaches

This paper describes an industrial case study assessing software replacement success and other effects. The target of assessments has been a large commercial legacy system for customer register management. The success of its replacement by its performed rewrite has been assessed via four approaches concerning: user satisfaction, strengths and problems of the system, problem surveillance and expert judgments. The approaches and metrics have been selected in cooperation with industrial experts in order that they would meet the needs of their organization. The assessments have been conducted by comparing the situations before and after the rewrite. They have included quality aspects. The appli…

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Defining the Process for Making Software System Modernization Decisions

This paper outlines a process for software system modernization decisions. The rationale of the process is explained and the process is defined in a way that allows its adaptation for other organizations and situations. The process is a light-weight one and is based on the use of objective data. The procedures for collecting the data are explained. The process has been used to solve a real industrial decision making situation in which the process was successful.

ISEBA – A Framework for IS Evolution Benefit Assessment

Decisions regarding information system evolution strategy, including modernization or replacement, are economically significant. Selection of a proper method for analyzing potential options, acquisition of suitable metrics or follow-up data, and evaluation of the results are major challenges in the evolution strategy decision making. In order to address these challenges, a framework for Information System Evolution Benefit Assessment (ISEBA) was developed. ISEBA provides assistance in the selection of a benefit-evaluation method for the investment situation at hand. It is based on empirical research on industrial decision making and co-operation projects, and examination of existing researc…

Group Decision-Making Processes in Industrial Software Evolution

Software evolution decision-making is important. Decisions can be made by an individual or a group. Currently it is not known how decision-making is organized in software industry. However, that knowledge is needed to improve the decision-making processes. Therefore, we have studied 29 decision making experts, who were involved in software evolution decision-making. The study was performed with qualitative methods, which enabled the gathering of versatile information concerning the views of the decision-makers. The study revealed group decisions are widely used both in private and public organizations and attitudes towards them are generally positive or neutral. The study provided informati…

Software Modernization and Replacement Decision Making in Industry: A Qualitative Study

Software modernization and replacement decisions are crucial to many organizations. They affect greatly to the success and well being of the organizations and their people. The decisions like that are usually presumed to be rational and based on facts. These decisions and how they are made tell much about the decision makers and the decision making tools available to them. Interviews of 29 software modernization decision makers or senior experts were analyzed in order to find out how the decisions were made and what models and tools were used. It turned out that decisions are not as rational as supposed. Intuition is the dominant factor in decision making. Formal software engineering orient…