At most, there may be some additional low-level information about the components and a better sense of configuration control as a result. Functional-level transformations start to provide some major benefits. Software has been restructured for different purposes. The changes are more than cosmetic changes. In fact, the changes can be precursors to more substantive architectural changes.
Software becomes easier to maintain.
In comparison to code-level changes, the mined and rehabilitated assets become better structured, better documented, and provide more clearly defined and more general interfaces. Many companies are finding that the only way that they can compete in a software-intensive business is to find solutions that they can reuse at a high level of abstraction. This is not component reuse, but reuse at the level of software architecture. Software architecture recovery is the first step toward developing a core set of assets that can be used in Architectural Based Development. The SEI has several methods and tools that can assist in architecture recovery.