In addition to this, a rule extraction tool should bypass or highlight implementation dependent logic, store an extracted rule, signify when a rule invokes another rule, display a rule, link to the tracking repository and, optionally, transform an extracted rule into a reusable format. The tracking repository should be used to highlight rule redundancy by single rule definition within the repository to the physical location of the each redundant legacy rule. The repository can also be used to map legacy rules to various target rules. This process helps analysts determine if a target design model is complete or if a package has the requisite functionality required within the existing system. The fact that humans cannot digest the shear volume of captured rules dictates that these rules must be presented using a predetermined rule classification scheme.
Analysts can use the tracking repository to link each rule to the data entity that it modifies.
They can also link rules to reports or screens for a given system. Once rules have been captured in a tracking repository, system maintenance teams should keep this information up to date. Organizations may stop here and limit reference of these rules to ongoing maintenance, middleware or system integration projects, or they may decide to reuse these rules in a target system design. The specification models used by a given development team dictates the format that rules will ultimately take. The good news here is that management can change their development technology as much as they like and the rule definitions in the tracking repository remain current because they are implementation independent.