A method to leverage legacy Oracle Forms applications in an SOA Jeroen Versteeg BSc June 17, 2008 Master thesis J. Versteeg Bsc A method to leverage legacy Oracle Forms applications in an SOA NAME Jeroen Versteeg STUDENT NUMBER 0015768 PLACE AND DATE Utrecht, June 17, 2008 INSTITUTE University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands FACULTY School of Management and Governance (SMG) PROGRAMME Business Information Technology (MBI) COMPANY Oracle Nederland B.V., De Meern COMMITTEE dr. M.L. Ponisio 1st university supervisor Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) dr. M.E. Iacob 2nd university supervisor School of Management and Governance (SMG) J.W. Sieben MBA 1st company supervisor Consulting Manager, Oracle Consulting A method to leverage legacy Oracle Forms applications in an SOA Summary In the last couple of years, Service Orientated Architecture (SOA) has gained a lot of momentum as a promising concept for IT systems. Vendors and organizations are adopting this technology in hope of creating more flexible and maintainable IT systems. While SOA looks like a very desirable architecture, most organizations do not start with a clean slate, but instead have made large investments in older technology, which usually does not integrate well with SOA. Many of these organizations face a dilemma with respect to the choice between keeping these outdated systems or replacing them with something new. According to market research, thousands of organizations are facing this problem with respect to applications that have been developed using the Oracle Forms application development framework. Now that Oracle is adopting SOA for new products (and newer version of existing products), customers feel pressure to adopt SOA, and need to decide what to do with existing Forms applications. While a lot of research has been done on replacing or re-engineering legacy systems, these approaches are often infeasible because of the costs and risks involved. Because these approaches have been developed using a technical viewpoint and hence do not take into account the particular business problems that need to be solved, they often cannot predict the actual business benefits the approach will deliver. The decision support method presented in this thesis takes a business-oriented viewpoint and helps organizations find a solution which solves the business problems it is actually facing because of the system. To this end, the method directs participants to analyze why exactly the system does not fulfill a particular business requirement, and to find a solution that solves this problem. Since this research acknowledges that legacy applications should be abandoned in the medium to long term, the emphasis lies on finding solutions that either require little investments in the legacy system, or enable a gradual transition towards a more modern application. The method has been validated using a small scale scenario based on a real case. While the findings show the method fills a gap in Oracle's Unified Method and is valid, more research is necessary to create a mature and well-tested method. iv Acknowledgments It is safe to say that this research would not have reached its goal without the help and support of a number people. First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisors Maria Laura Ponisio and Maria Iacob for their feedback and their patience. I very much enjoyed discussing the direction of my thesis with them during our meetings in Enschede as well as via email. Maria Laura especially gave me guidance on which steps to take next, and perhaps most importantly, the encouragement to carry on when I needed it most. Secondly, I would like to thank Remco Rosbergen and Jan-Willem Sieben, my supervisors at Oracle, for facilitating my project and introducing me to the right experts. In particular I would like to thank Jan Kettenis for taking the time to familiarize me with the OUM and to help develop my method, which is the primary contribution of this research. Apart from the people who helped me directly with the research project and the thesis, there are number people who supported me personally during the project. A big thanks goes out to my family and friends, who supported me throughout the project and helped me cope with the personal issues I was facing at the time. I would also like to acknowledge Gerben's patience with me during the time that I could contribute little to our company Asystance. It is because of his dedication and hard work that the company we started six years ago now provides us both with full-time employment and rewarding work. Last but certainly not least I want to express my gratitude to all the friends I have made in Enschede, for making the six years I have spent there an enjoyable and unforgettable episode of my life. Jeroen Versteeg, June 14, 2008 v A method to leverage legacy Oracle Forms applications in an SOA Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction.............................................................................................7 1.1 About this research.............................................................................................................................8 1.2 Thesis structure.................................................................................................................................11 Chapter 2: Introduction to Oracle Forms and SOA.................................................13 2.1 Legacy systems in general................................................................................................................13 2.2 Oracle Forms.....................................................................................................................................14 2.3 Service Oriented Architecture........................................................................................................15 2.4 Comparison........................................................................................................................................15 Chapter 3: Business Drivers for SOA Adoption.......................................................19 3.1 Introduction.......................................................................................................................................19 3.2 Current business drivers and trends..............................................................................................20 3.3 Advantages inherent in SOA..........................................................................................................26 3.4 Advantages compared to Oracle Forms.......................................................................................28 3.5 Summary of advantages...................................................................................................................29 Chapter 4: Leveraging Approaches..........................................................................31 4.1 Introduction.......................................................................................................................................31 4.2 Classification of modernization approaches................................................................................32 4.3 Decisional framework......................................................................................................................35 4.4 Leveraging Oracle Forms................................................................................................................36 4.5 Replacing Oracle Forms..................................................................................................................40 4.6 Existing methodologies...................................................................................................................42 Chapter 5: Requirements.........................................................................................47 5.1 Legacy system quality.......................................................................................................................47 5.2 SOA maturity.....................................................................................................................................51 Chapter 6: Method...................................................................................................53 6.1 Oracle Unified Method....................................................................................................................53 6.2 Method description..........................................................................................................................55 Chapter 7: Validation...............................................................................................68 7.1 Scenario..............................................................................................................................................68 7.2 Evaluation..........................................................................................................................................74 Chapter 8: Conclusions and Recommendations.....................................................77 8.1 Answers to research questions.......................................................................................................77 8.2 Open questions / future research..................................................................................................80 8.3 Recommendations............................................................................................................................81 Appendix