Many corporate mainframe applications continue to service organizations in spite of their age and technology platform. Modernizing legacy applications by converting them to new application languages and migrating to new databases is a cost effective solution for many mainframe users. Key to the success of such projects is the ability to automate the process and preserve application functionality.

The success of such projects requires following a highly structured methodology and using tools that include the following:

• Define Architecture of Target Environment – the operating environment of the target application environment needs to be specified. In addition the architecture of the target application needs to be defined. Will the target application comprise Presentation, Business Logic and Data Access Layer or will the target application comprise just Application and Data Access layers?
• Repository Load – all application programs need to be uploaded into the Modernization Repository. This will allow an in depth analysis of the application entities so as to serve the follow-on stages of the conversion project. Cross reference information such as relationships between Programs, Tables and their associated program views needs to be established.
• Determining scope of inventory -  the programs that comprise the inventory to be migrated need to be identified. Once identified they need to be verified to ensure that there are no missing entities. Additionally obsolete programs no longer in use need to be excluded.  Identifying such entities can significantly reduce scope of conversion effort.
• Understanding program complexities – the source code needs to be parsed in order to identify unique coding constructs that may require manual intervention. Typically code conversion should be done automatically with 85% - 90% of all new application code to be automatically generated. High degree of automation will significantly reduce risk and testing time.
• External dependencies – any dependencies between application to be converted and other applications external to the modernization project will require performing requisite modifications. In the event that application will be converted in phases co-existence bridges need to be created for converted and yet-to-be converted code as required.
• Testing – test plans need to be established in addition to defining test scenarios that will serve application testing. The ability to automate the  testing process by comparing the output of the converted code with the equivalent results derived from the ‘before conversion’ code will speed up the testing process and significantly reduce any defects in the new application.
• Refresh – Typically a project will be conducted over a period of time during which the application to be converted may require on-going maintenance based on changing business needs. A mechanism needs to be put in place that will allow changes in code resulting from on-going maintenance to ‘refresh’ code that has already been converted.  

All the above constitute key activities that need to be addressed to ensure success of an application conversion project.