Smalltalk to Smalltalk Migration

KSC Migration Advantages

KSC can migrate your Smalltalk application to another dialect of Smalltalk. KSC migrations preserve the Client's long-term investment by migrating all application functionality while limiting disruption of the Client's IT operations through the use of a unique, proprietary, state-of-the-art migration tool named “Babelfish DE”. This tool was developed at Mission Software. KSC migrations are faster, less expensive and less disruptive than totally rewriting business-critical applications from scratch.

The KSC Migration Process

KSC will review and discuss your migration requirements. Next is an assessment of the Client's overall application code base and infrastructure via a pre¬liminary questionnaire. Based on these sizing metrics, KSC then identifies the Proof of Concept segment, a section of application code representative of the Client's code as a whole. Successful migration of the Proof of Concept segment demonstrates KSC's proficiency and helps refine the migration plan. Testing and validation is performed on all segments as they are migrated.

Developing the Migration Plan

The first step in the KSC migration process revolves around the preliminary question¬naire. Filled out by the Client, the questionnaire is designed to elicit information needed to develop the migration plan. The Client defines objectives for the migration and describes both the current and target application environments. At this stage the application code is partitioned into segments (the basic units of migration and progress measurement), the Proof of Concept segment is selected, and the migration sequence of the other segments is deter¬mined. Then KSC creates both the migration plan and a presentation for the Client's man¬agement team.

Performing the Migration

After a contract specifying terms and conditions on both parties is agreed to and signed, migration proceeds as outlined in the migration plan. The Proof of Concept segment is migrated first. As this work proceeds, KSC is constantly evaluating progress and identifying unanticipated, unknown complexities in the Client's application environments and frame¬works. Discovering these potential challenges early in the Proof of Concept migration helps KSC refine the time estimates for the full migration and revise the migration plan accordingly. An important milestone is the successful completion of the Proof of Concept migration, reached when all Client-supplied tests pass and all validation defined in the contract has been achieved.

Each segment in the migration plan is migrated. Validation and testing measure the success of each segment's migration. Migration continues in the same fashion, segment by segment, until all application functionality is migrated to the target environment and integrated into the Client's business processes.