The main objective of this phase is to maximize some of the benefits of the current state of the art technologies that are applied to your application.
You have prepared your environment and you have modernized the application. Now, it is time to evaluate the progress of your work. If this evaluation indicates that you should step back in the process, do not worry; you might have to do this step multiple times.
If the evaluation shows that you have accomplished your goals, it is time to start expanding the value of the application and prepare it for the future.
The following sections describe some of the activities that you should consider in this phase.
Measuring
You must determine whether you are achieving the modernization objectives. If your main goal is to reduce complexity, this step must reflect a reduction of the complexity. If you must improve the user experience, you should measure it in some way. The key point is that you keep control of the objectives and the progress to achieve these goals.
Your measurement should indicate adjustments that should be made to the project.
Improving the architecture
Now, you can consider optimizing the application architecture. You might want to start separating the application in layers or tiers and to include more components, such as a new UI replacement layer. This step focuses on the application as a whole.
Integrating
One of the common modernization goals is to integrate the application in to an enterprise architecture. Often, it is necessary to enable the application for SOA or to make it more flexible for usage with other enterprise integration technologies.
Bringing in new technologies
If there is any new technology that can help you improve the application, you can include it in this step. Carefully analyze it to keep it from becoming a future obstacle.
Always aim for standard tools, technologies, and well-tested solutions. Evaluate the user community around them and the support of the official application maintenance personnel.
These new technologies can become obsolete quickly, so wrap them in a way that helps you replace them easily if necessary.