Parallel Continuous Migration (PCM). While you maintain the existing system Lizatec makes a migration engine that automatically builds a new system in C# and .Net.
We work on your system layer by layer. The top layer – the user interface, is completely rebuilt. However, we will always use the same structure for presenting the interface so users can still find their way around with all fields still in the same place and with menus intact. The menus are only moved from the top to the left, as in the Outlook bar.
Our migration program searches for patterns in the original sources, for instance, executing an SQL query and loading data. For this pattern we build a code generator with the SQL query as a parameter. A system can contain thousands of places where this pattern occurs, all with different SQL queries. If you change one of those SQL statements in the legacy system by adding a field or a sort order the migration engine does not care. It just converts the statement again.
Most of the work is testing, testing and more testing. Large systems can have thousands of screens, millions of lines of code. We must check that we convert all the screens and all the lines – and all in the right way.
Is it rocket science? Yes, because a rocket, like the migration engine is used only once. At some point we take the final source, run the migration program, and deliver the new version to you. The migration program, like a rocket, is discarded.
