AppliedModernization32 min
COBOL refactoring and incremental modernization
How teams modernize COBOL systems without betting the business: choosing between retain, refactor, replatform, rewrite and replace, strangling old code behind APIs and events, refactoring safely with tests, and the real risks of converting COBOL to Java.
What you will be able to do
- Compare the main modernization strategies and match them to an application's value and health
- Explain the strangler-fig pattern and why API enablement and events usually come first
- Refactor COBOL safely using characterization tests, modularisation and evidence-based dead-code removal
- Identify the main technical risks of COBOL-to-Java conversion and how to measure modernization progress
Lessons
- Choosing a modernization strategyModernization is not one thing. For each application you choose whether to keep it, improve it in place, move it, rewrite it or buy something to replace it, and each choice…
- Strangler fig, APIs first and event-driven integrationThe strangler-fig pattern replaces an old system gradually: a routing layer sends some requests to new services and the rest to the old code until nothing is left.
- Refactoring COBOL safely and COBOL-to-Java risksRefactoring changes how code is organised without changing what it does. Do it safely by capturing current behaviour in tests first, then making small changes: splitting large…
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Free account, 15 quiz questions for this subject.