Thesis author: Siegfried Pfaff
Legacy system modernization involves complex technical challenges that require a structured understanding of concepts such as technical debt, coupling, and migration strategies. Ontologies provide a formal approach to representing and organizing domain knowledge by establishing a shared vocabulary, supporting basic reasoning, and facilitating knowledge transfer. However, existing software engineering ontologies are often too generic or lack a specific focus on legacy system modernization, limiting their usefulness for structured analysis. This thesis will develop a domain ontology for the technical aspects of legacy system modernization using a systematic ontology engineering approach. The ontology will be constructed through domain analysis, concept identification, taxonomy development, relationship modeling, and iterative refinement. Based on selected literature and domain sources, the thesis will establish a consistent knowledge structure that captures key modernization concepts, their relationships, and basic definitions. The resulting ontology will provide a foundation for supporting the understanding, analysis, and documentation of challenges in legacy system modernization.
