Getting Started with Planner

The Modernization Planner helps you modernize complex legacy systems — incrementally, safely, and with full governance. This guide will walk you through launching your first modernization project: from setting up a Baseline to executing a governed Plan.


Why The Planner?

Modernizing legacy systems is hard — especially when you can’t break what’s already working. The Planner gives you:

  • A Baseline of what exists — systems, apps, gateways, data, and their dependencies
  • A Plan for how to change it — with governed actions and safe rollout
  • Support for decoupling patterns, data capture, and incremental migration
  • Full integration with OpenLegacy Hub for execution, rollback, and monitoring

✅ Step 1: Setup and Access

  • Log in to the Planner from the Hub App Selector

📡 Step 2: Create a Baseline

A Baseline is a full map of your current landscape — applications, gateways, data sources, and how they’re connected.

  • Start a new Baseline project

  • Import or auto-discover:

    • Applications (e.g., CICS apps, DB400 apps, COBOL/RPG services)
    • Gateways (e.g., MQ, CTG, IMS Connect)
    • Data sources (e.g., VSAM, DB2, DB400)
  • Define Links between components (app → app, app → DB, gateway → app)

  • Organize systems into Zones: Mainframe, Cloud, Digital

  • Review and approve the Baseline map

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Tip: Use the Baseline to understand what calls what, where coupling exists, and which assets are most critical.


🧭 Step 3: Analyze the Baseline

  • Review app-to-app and app-to-data dependencies

  • Identify:

    • Gateway entry points (CTG, MQ, IMS)
      • Configure the Gateway and test connectivity
    • High-risk or high-value components
    • Opportunities to decouple, refactor, or observe

📝 Step 4: Define a Modernization Plan

  • Select one or more assets (apps, gateways, data sources) from the Baseline

  • Assign a Plan Action:

    • Refactor – rewrite logic in a modern language/platform
    • Rehost – move to new infrastructure without changing code
    • ReImagine – redesign as a new domain/API
    • Augment – add new capabilities alongside legacy
    • Capture – use CDC to emit change events from legacy data


⚙️ Step 5: Generate and Review the Plan

Planner automatically builds a governed Plan with:

  • Projects& Components to be created (Bridges, Interceptors, services)
  • Tasks to configure, generate, test, deploy, and validate
  • Architecture diagrams showing the Baseline → Plan transition
  • Dependency tracking

You can review any step before executing.


🧩 Step 6: Execute with Hub

Execute tasks:

  • Generate Interceptors or CDC Projects
    • Build and deploy Bridges or services

      • Update routing (e.g., CTG to Interceptor)


✅ Step 7: Validate and Monitor

  • Use Hub and Planner together to:

    • Track plan execution in real time
    • Compare post-change state to Baseline
    • Validate business continuity and data correctness
    • Audit modernization outcomes

🔁 Repeat and Expand

Modernization is iterative. Once your first Plan is complete:

  • Expand the Baseline to new systems or zones
  • Launch additional Plans (using different Actions or Patterns)
  • Use the Planner as your system-of-record for modernization efforts

📎 Related Pages