Database logic
Stored procedures and scheduled database tasks may implement rules that are absent from the application’s screens and services.
Legacy application discovery
Start discovery when the application is difficult to run
Older applications can depend on unavailable build tools, undocumented database logic and integrations maintained by other teams. The discovery scope needs to account for those conditions instead of assuming that a source repository is the whole system.
When the original environment is missing
Identify the available source revision, build instructions, dependency files and database definitions. Record which tools, environments or components cannot be obtained. This establishes what can be investigated now and what would require a separate recovery task.
Look beyond the main repository
Batch and file interfaces
Job definitions, import and export formats, and rejected-record handling may be essential to the operational process.
Other teams and systems
External services, manually run steps and downstream consumers need owners who can explain their current use.
What can be learned without a running system
Source analysis can describe implemented code paths, conditions and dependencies. It cannot demonstrate that a production integration is active, that an undocumented environment matches the source, or that a proposed replacement behaves correctly at runtime.
Harten distinguishes those findings from questions that require execution, environment access or customer evidence. That distinction helps you decide whether further environment recovery is worth commissioning.
What must be checked with application owners
Ask which periodic jobs still run, where operators use workarounds and which outputs other organisations rely on. These details can materially change a migration scope even when the application code has not changed.
Begin with the material that is available
The discovery service explains the inputs and investigation process. We agree the boundary and limitations before starting; missing documentation does not automatically rule out useful work.
See how discovery begins