An Incremental Approach to Software ReengineeringBased on Object-Relational Mapping

We address the problem of reengineering legacy systems towards adoption of current predominant technolo- gies, i.e. object-oriented (OO) programming and relational databases (RDB). To smooth the reengineering process we follow an evolutionary approach based on the construction of a mapping layer decoupling application logic from persistent data, so that application reengineering and data reengineering are made independent and carried out incrementally. The mapping layer does not impose any particular environment, container or whatsoever. Therefore, program development can be carried out based on well established OO design principles. In reimplementing applications, rather than trying to identify applicative classes exclusively from the legacy code, we follow the guidelines of iterative development processes such as UP, giving the due consideration to actual user requirements.