Functional & technical analysis of a legacy system and creation of a modernization strategy

Objective

The Doka Formwork Design Software (DFDS) is now in its 9th version and offers platform-independent support for beginners and professionals in formwork planning. Due to decades of development with different partners, the client lacked a detailed understanding of the core functionality, especially with regard to a possible replacement. The goal of our project was a precise and comprehensive documentation of the central DFDS components and the evaluation of a possible modernization strategy focused on strong integration into the core value chain from sales, planning and production through to complete invoicing.

Approach

• Analysis of the source code to generate technical documentation
• Generating functional documentation through expert workshops
• Correlating the technical and functional levels to create consistent and profound documentation
• Developing a target picture for the planning software and integrating all necessary interfaces to realize savings potential
• Allocating the functions to a possible new development and to existing surrounding systems (SAP, CRM, production planning system, Revit, AutoCAD)

Result

• Retro-documentation of a legacy system
• Development of a strategic target picture and mapping of the functions along the planning process across different systems
• Validation of different systems for replacing the existing system (incl. AutoCAD, Revit, Inventor, iTWO)