System and method for application configuration comparison and reuse
A system and method allow a user to extract the set of customizations performed on an application and use these to estimate the time and effort and cost of (a) migrating to a new version of the application and/or (b) consolidating systems. The user can browse the extracted data and select configuration elements for re-use. After downloading the one or more configurations and comparing them, the user selects elements of the configurations for re-use. The first step is to scan one or more application systems and extract the configuration data using a surveyor. The method according to the invention automatically identifies configuration differences. The user then selects configuration elements for re-use. A graphic user interface (GUI) can be provided which allows the user to make these selections by dragging and dropping selected elements to a “To Be” configuration. The selected configurations are then uploaded and installed on an instance of the application.
1. A method of application configuration comparison and re-use comprising the steps of:
scanning an application system using a surveyor; wherein the scanning comprises:
creating an asset that will hold data; followed by
selecting a system that contains data; followed by
authenticating with the system; followed by
selecting a type of extracted data and extraction parameters, followed by
downloading and saving the data into the asset; followed by
saving the asset into a repository;
and wherein the application system that is scanned in the scanning step is a business application that is an Enterprise Resource Planning system that requires continuous access;
extracting application configuration elements which are customizations performed on an application that are identified in the application system during said scanning step;
providing extracted application configuration elements to a workbench;
comparing in the workbench the extracted application configuration elements with a reference system;
computing differences between the extracted application configuration elements and the reference system;
prompting a user to select one or more configuration elements from said extracted application configuration elements for re-use; and
uploading and installing selected configuration elements of an instance of the application system.
2. The method of application configuration comparison and re-use recited in claim 1 , wherein selection of configuration elements for re-use is performed by a user by dragging and dropping selected elements onto a “To Be” configuration using a graphic user interface (GUI).
3. The method of application configuration comparison and re-use recited in claim 1 , wherein extracted application configuration elements include Business Process Hierarchy (BPH).
4. The method of application configuration comparison and re-use recited in claim 1 , wherein extracted application configuration elements include Implementation Guides (IMGs).
5. The method of application configuration comparison and re-use recited in claim 1 , wherein extracted application configuration elements include custom code.
6. The method of application configuration comparison and re-use recited in claim 1 , wherein extracted application configuration elements include time periods for gathered statistics.
7. The method of application configuration comparison and re-use recited in claim 1 , wherein extracted application configuration elements include Business Process Hierarchy (BPH), Implementation Guides (IMGs), custom code, and time periods for gathered statistics.
8. A system for application configuration comparison and re-use comprising:
a central processing unit;
a surveyor for scanning an application system that is a business application that is an Enterprise Resource Planning system that requires continuous access, to extract application configuration elements which are customizations performed on an application;
wherein scanning the application system comprises:
creating an asset that will hold data; followed by
selecting a system that contains data; followed by
authenticating with the system; followed by
selecting a type of extracted data and extraction parameters, followed by
downloading and saving the data into the asset; followed by
saving the asset into a repository;
a workbench to which extracted application configuration elements from the business application that requires continuous access are provided by the surveyor;
means in the workbench for comparing the extracted application configuration elements with a reference system;
means in the workbench for computing differences between the extracted application configuration elements and the reference system;
means in the workbench for prompting a user to select configuration elements for re-use and uploading and installing user selected configuration elements of an instance of the application system.
9. The system for application configuration comparison and re-use recited in claim 8 , wherein the workbench provides the user with a graphic user interface (GUI) by which selection of configuration elements for re-use a user is performed by dragging and dropping selected elements onto a “To Be” configuration using the GUI.
10. The system for application configuration comparison and re-use recited in claim 8 , wherein extracted application configuration elements include Business Process Hierarchy (BPH), Implementation Guides (IMGs), custom code, and time periods for gathered statistics.
11. The method of claim 1 , including consolidating multiple instances of a business application into a single instance.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein multiple Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are consolidated into a single ERP system.
13. The method of claim 1 , including, prior to the differences-computing step, downloading two assets to be compared.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein in the downloading step, the data is downloaded directly in a file system as a set of folders and XML files.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein all the relationships between entities are captured as static relationships between folders and files.
16. The method of claim 15 , wherein a business process defining a set of business steps is represented as a folder containing a set of folders, where each child folder defines a business step.
17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the type of data that is selected in the scanning step, is a type selected from the group consisting of IMG, BPH and custom code.
18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the business application that requires continuous access in the scanning step is a legacy system.
19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the business application that requires continuous access in the scanning step is selected from the group consisting of an SAP system, an Oracle system, a Peoplesoft system, a Siebel system, a JD Edwards system, and a Lawson system.