Reverse Engineering: Why and How to Reverse Engineer Software

Today especially large organizations are not only faced with the problem of replacing their information systems with completely new ones, but they have to maintain and to gain control over their legacy applications. Reverse engineering provides the means for this purpose supporting in recapturing lost information, restructuring complex systems or transforming old systems to a new and more maintainable architecture. This paper introduces the basic concepts of reverse engineering, clarifies related terms and indicates important reverse engineering approaches. Furthermore, a particular reverse engineering methodology for re-architecturing legacy applications is introduced and its impact on software engineering is discussed.