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One of the goals of modern software engineering is to move towards a paradigm of evolutionary systems. In this model, the arti cial distinction between development and maintenance is replaced by the notion of continous evolution of the subject system. While this notion holds much promise for future systems, there is one major stumbling block on the road to its wide-spread acceptance and use: the existing base of legacy systems.

Reengineering o ers an approach to migrating a legacy system towards an evolvable system in a disciplined manner. The process of reengineering may be viewed as applying engineering principles to an existing system in order for it to meet new requirements. However, in order to be successful, reengineering requires insights from a number of di erent perspectives.