Challenges of Model-driven Modernization - An Agile Perspective

Software organizations are nowadays facing increased demand for modernizing their legacy software systems using up-to-date technologies. The combination of Model-Driven Development and delivery models like Cloud and Software as a Service have become a very promising approach for software modernization that possesses a lot of advantages, including great deal of automation and reuse of system functionality. However, the use of such new and immature technologies is very challenging and requires a comprehensive methodology for their seamless application within the software modernization projects. When developing such methodology, questions on whether agile methods and techniques should be incorporated and what could be the benefits and implications from that become of particular interest. To help answering these questions, the paper evaluates the potential of agile methods and techniques to address the challenges of Model-Driven Modernization. The challenges are extracted through a systematic review of the existing body of literature on Model-Driven Development and Software Modernization, and the evaluation is conducted through the Delphi technique. As a result, a ranked list of applicable agile techniques is proposed and suggestions for their use in Model-Driven Modernization are made.