An Industry View about Legacy Systems

Systems considered legacy are often associated with several management challenges. The objective of this article is to present the perception of professionals in the Brazilian software development industry about what is understood as a legacy system, the difficulties arising from its maintenance, as well as the criteria used to help decide the best evolution strategy. Through a survey, the perceptions of 33 professionals were collected. The results show that professionals understand legacy systems as systems developed some time ago, with technology that is now obsolete, but which are still useful for organizations. The main challenges when dealing with this type of system are the difficulty in understanding the code and the scarcity of human resources. The main criterion taken into account when evaluating what to do with the system is the cost involved in maintenance. Possible decisions that can be made after the assessment include continuing maintenance, replacing and modernizing the software.