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© 2009 IBM Corporation

Extracting Business Rules from COBOL:A Model-Based Framework

Valerio Cosentino - IBM, AtlanMod, INRIA & EMN, Nantes - valerio.cosentino@fr.ibm.comJordi Cabot - AtlanMod, INRIA & EMN, Nantes - jordi.cabot@mines-nantes.frPatrick Albert – IBM - albertpa@fr.ibm.comPhilippe Bauquel – IBM - bauquel.p@fr.ibm.comJacques Perronnet – IBM - jacques_perronnet@fr.ibm.com

WCRE 2013, Koblenz, Germany – 14-17 October

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Outline

Introduction– Problem– Running example

Framework overview– Model Discovery– Business Term Identification– Business Rule Identification– Business Rule Representation

Early validation Conclusion & future work

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Problem

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Problem

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Problem

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Problem

Poor/outdated system documentation

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Problem

Poor/outdated system documentation The original developers/business analysts may have left the

organization

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Problem

Poor/outdated system documentation The original developers/business analysts may have left the

organization Business rules spread in the source code

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Problem

Understanding and evolving the business policies together with the corresponding business rules is not trivial

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Problem

Understanding and evolving the business policies together with the corresponding business rules is not trivial

Specially true for legacy systems

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COBOL

Largely used:– 200 billion lines of code in existence– 70%-75% of business and transaction systems– 90% of global financial transactions

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COBOL

Largely used:– 200 billion lines of code in existence– 70%-75% of business and transaction systems– 90% of global financial transactions

Shortage of COBOL developers:– Study on 357 Information Technology professionals

– 46% says they already notice a shortage– 50% says the average age is > 45– 22% says the age is > 55

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Running exampleBag

Money

Is open

Need Quantity

Price

Business rules in the program:–If the shop is open, then the customer can buy products–If a product P is needed, then the customer buys P–If the client has enough money, then he can buy products–If the client has enough room in his bag, he can buy products–If a product is available, then it may be bought–If a product is bought, its quantity is decreased by one

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Running example Rule embedded in the code:

if a product is bought, its quantity is decreased by one

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Running example Rule embedded in the code:

if a product is bought, its quantity is decreased by one

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Running example Rule embedded in the code:

if a product is bought, its quantity is decreased by one

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Running example Rule embedded in the code:

if a product is bought, its quantity is decreased by one

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Framework overview

Model Driven Engineering:– Modular framework– Internal/external representation of BRs– Traceability between rules and source code– Mature tools available for model manipulations, visualizations

and transformations (e.g., ATL, Xtext, ...)

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COBOL Model Discovery

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Business Term Identification

Manually: the user selects the variables Automatically: heuristic-based strategy

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Business Term Identification

Manually: the user selects the variables Automatically: heuristic-based strategy

1) Statements are separated in groups:– Conditional– Computational– ...

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Business Term Identification

Manually: the user selects the variables Automatically: heuristic-based strategy

1) Statements are separated in groups:– Conditional– Computational– ...

2) Variables in statements are classified in:– Condition– Index– Source– Target

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Business Term Identification

Manually: the user selects the variables Automatically: heuristic-based strategy

– all target variables in computational statements– all variables in conditional statements– ...

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Business Rule Identification

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Business Rule Identification – Rule Discovery Rule Fragment Identification:

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Business Rule Identification – Rule Discovery Rule Fragment Identification:

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Business Rule Identification – Rule Discovery Rule Fragment Identification:

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Business Rule Identification – Rule Discovery Rule Context Identification:

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Business Rule Representation

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Business Rule Representation – Vocabulary Extraction

Optional and manual step

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Business Rule Representation – Visualization

Text-based visualization

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Business Rule Representation – Visualization

Text-based visualization

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Business Rule Representation – Visualization

Graph-based visualization

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Business Rule Representation – Visualization

Graph-based visualization

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Business Rule Representation – Visualization

Graph-based visualization

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Early validation

Does the framework find complete business rules? Are the extracted rules understandable?

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Early validation

Does the framework find complete business rules? Are the extracted rules understandable?

Analysis of an IBM COBOL application:– 14 programs– 130 variables– 6500 lines of code

4 internal IBM COBOL experts:– They knew the application– They analysed the business rules generated by our framework

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Early validation

Does the framework find complete business rules? Are the extracted rules understandable?

Analysis of an IBM COBOL application:– 14 programs– 130 variables– 6500 lines of code

4 internal IBM COBOL experts:– They knew the application– They analysed the business rules generated by our framework

The framework is able to identify the complete business rules– But some extracted rules include technical knowledge

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Conclusion and future work

MDE benefits:– Modular framework– Internal/external representation of BRs– Traceability between rules and source code

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Conclusion and future work

MDE benefits:– Modular framework– Internal/external representation of BRs– Traceability between rules and source code

Future work:– Complete the early validation on a real system– Extract and unify the rules buried in other layers (presentation,

data, logic)

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Questions