Assessing Legacy Software Systems: Existence, Challenges, Impact, and Migration Strategies in Organizational Contexts
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26713/cma.v17i1.3513Keywords:
Legacy Software Systems (LSSs), Modern Software Systems (MSSs), Technological Challenges, Organizational Impact, System Modernization, Migration Strategies, Goal-Question- Metric (GQM)Abstract
Legacy software systems remain deeply embedded in modern organizations, often serving as the backbone of mission-critical operations. Despite their importance, these systems introduce significant challenges related to security, scalability, maintainability, and integration with modern technologies. This study provides an empirical examination of legacy software systems based on responses from 200 IT specialists across public and private organizations. The findings reveal high dependency on aging systems, widespread technical and organizational challenges, and substantial impact on business workflows and digital transformation efforts. The study also highlights modernization strategies currently adopted by organizations, including cloud migration, reengineering, and incremental refactoring. Based on these insights, this research proposes the need for structured evaluation models and future application of the Goal–Question–Metric (GQM) paradigm to measure the depth and breadth of legacy software system dependency. The results contribute to a deeper understanding of legacy software system realities and offer guidance for sustainable modernization practices.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a CCAL that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
