Accelerate application upgrades with Amazon Q Developer agent for code transformation

In this blog, we will explore how Amazon Q Developer Agent for code transformation accelerates Java application upgrades. We will examine the benefits of this Generative AI-powered agent and outline strategies to achieve maximal acceleration, drawing from real-world success stories and best practices.

Benefits of using Amazon Q Developer to upgrade your applications

Amazon Q Developer addresses a critical challenge for organizations managing numerous Java applications, particularly as they face the approaching end of Long-Term-Support (LTS) for older Java versions. Upgrading to Java 17 enhances security, resolves vulnerabilities, and improves performance while ensuring long-term compatibility and access to modern features. Currently, Q Developer agent for code transformation supports upgrades from Java 8 and 11 to Java 17. Software developers can utilize Q Developer within their IDE (VS Code and JetBrains) to transform both single-module and multi-module applications. Q Developer will generate a plan that identifies necessary library upgrades and replacements for deprecated code in the application, proposing code changes with the goal of ensuring the transformed code compiles successfully in Java 17. Q Developer can significantly enhance the efficiency of your migration workflow, performing code transformations on applications in hours rather than weeks.

Customer success of using Q Developer to modernize legacy Java applications

Customers have used Q Developer to upgrade their Java applications successfully. Here is how two customers as well as Amazon internal teams use Q Developer to accelerate the migration process.

A large insurance company in North America strategically approached their Java upgrade initiative by identifying applications with dependencies that Q Developer could upgrade effectively. They focused on applications that rely on frameworks like Spring Boot, which can be time-consuming to upgrade manually. After leveraging Q Developer to transform 4 applications in pilot, they estimated a 36% acceleration in their upgrade process, indicating that Q Developer automatically completed over a third of the work that would have been required manually. While the remaining portion still necessitated manual intervention to ensure the code would build and run correctly, the effort acceleration was significant.

A major financial services firm’s experience with Q Developer proved equally compelling. In a focused two-day workshop, 20 developers successfully transformed 20 applications in production using the Amazon Q Developer agent. This results in 42% time savings using Q Developer compared to manual upgrade, saving on average 24 hours per application. They spent about 3 weeks to prepare for the transformation workshop. They identified first-party (1P) dependencies—internal libraries that other production applications rely on. Q developer does not guarantee upgrade of 1P dependencies. With a combination of Q Developer and manual work, the customer upgraded many of these common 1P dependencies leading up to the workshop. This step was crucial to gain maximum acceleration while using Q Developer for the upgrades.

Amazon uses Q Developer internally to upgrade Java applications following company-wide campaigns. The central team who owns the campaigns provides detailed guidance on which Java applications can be upgraded with Q developer most effectively. This team also manages Amazon’s internal build system and provides tooling to automate part of the manual efforts. They are able to achieve significant savings. Amazon was able to upgrade more than 50% of production applications in six months, 79% of the auto-generated code reviews were applied without additional changes.

Use Q Developer to upgrade your applications

To ensure that Q Developer is properly applied to the specific characteristics of their codebases, customers create and follow a transformation approach. Teams and individuals who understand the scope of the upgrade run campaigns across the company to effectively utilize Q Developer. To maximize the acceleration from Q Developer, these teams classify the applications which need to be upgraded, identify which ones can be upgraded using Q Developer, estimate the manual effort required, which provides a baseline to measure the value added by Q Developer agent for code transformation. The preparation phase is crucial before starting the execution phase of the upgrade. Each of the steps in the preparation phase plays an important role in maximizing the acceleration of Amazon Q in their upgrade processes.

1. Classifying the applications to upgrade: Q Developer supports the upgrade of 30 most common Java libraries. Q Developer’s performance on less common and internal libraries is lower compared to the common libraries. In this case, you can use a combination of Q Developer and manual steps. It’s recommended to include both production applications and internal dependencies in this step. You should also classify your applications and internal libraries based on if/how they are used by other applications, it will help prioritize the applications to upgrade first in campaigns. Classifying applications by libraries used can help you identify the best upgrade approach using Q Developer.
2. Defining baselines of efficiency: To measure the efficiency of the upgrade effort in your organization, it is crucial to establish baselines. Based on the classification of applications, use Q Developer in a pilot for each class to see which libraries are transformed correctly, and which ones have to be done manually. This helps you operationalize the process of using Q Developer and the manual steps required, and understand how this procedure accelerates the upgrade of a certain class of applications. Some customers use manual effort hours for each upgrade on dependency versions and deprecated code as baseline and compare the manual effort hours with time taken when completing the upgrade using Q Developer. For example, you can classify the applications based on the main frameworks used before upgrading applications using Q Developer. Compare the time taken by Q Developer with manual upgrade hours to understand which applications can be upgraded by Q Developer most effectively.
3. Identifying applications for migration: Decide which applications to use Q Developer for, and prioritize the applications to upgrade in waves based on expected acceleration and business value. You can prioritize the applications which are most used by other applications and upgrade them in the initial campaign, then upgrade the rest of the applications in the subsequent campaigns. By addressing the foundational components first, the overall upgrade process will be streamlined. In Amazon, a centralized internal team defines migration waves and identifies which packages would be included in the upgrade campaign. Additionally, this team conducted analysis of the apps to determine the likelihood of the upgrade being successful using Q developer, and provides an estimate of the remaining engineering effort needed to complete the upgrade. The team will use this information to select applications and uses an Amazon-internal tool to assign the upgrade tasks to the team owning the applications. While SDEs were free to run the upgrade on their own, following the campaign with a set deadline mobilized the application owner teams to complete the upgrade.

Use Q Developer to automate upgrade tasks

Once the preparation phase is completed, you can start the execution phase. Software developers can use Q Developer to accelerate many of the steps in execution phase.

1. Assessing the components of an application to upgrade. You can use Q Developer to start a transformation, at the beginning of the transformation, there will be a transformation plan generated for you to view which dependencies and deprecated code will be upgraded.
2. Research and update dependency versions compatible to the target version. Q Developer will analyze your app and attempt to update the dependencies to the versions compatible with target Java version and in some cases the latest version.
3. Replace deprecated methods and API calls which are not compatible to the target version. Q Developer will detect the deprecated code and attempt to update to what’s recommended in the compatible Java version.
4. Reviewing the modified code and address any conflicts or issues that may arise. Q Developer will return code changes to you at the end of the transformation. If the transformation is successful, the app will compile in Java 17. If the transformation is partially successful, Q Developer was able to upgrade library versions and make code changes but could not compile the transformed app successfully in Java 17. Check out this part of our documentation on how to handle partial transformations.
5. Test the upgraded application thoroughly to ensure correct functionality. Q Developer will run the unit tests and integration tests in your app when compiling in the target version.

Conclusion

As organizations face the pressing need to modernize their Java applications, Amazon Q Developer emerges as a powerful ally in this complex journey. The customer success stories demonstrate the tangible benefits of leveraging AI-assisted code transformation: significant time savings, reduced manual effort, and accelerated upgrade processes.

Q Developer not only addresses the technical challenges of Java upgrades, but also enables organizations to approach these initiatives strategically. By classifying applications, establishing baselines, and prioritizing upgrades, teams can maximize the efficiency of their modernization efforts. While Q Developer streamlines much of the upgrade process, it is important to note that some challenges may still arise. For a comprehensive understanding of potential challenges and detailed guidance on getting started with Q Developer, we encourage you to explore our public documentation.

The journey to Java 17 and beyond doesn’t have to be daunting. With Amazon Q Developer, you have a powerful tool at your disposal to accelerate your upgrade process, reduce costs, and ensure your applications remain secure, performant, and future-ready.

Take the first step towards modernizing your Java ecosystem today. Explore Amazon Q Developer and discover how it can transform your upgrade strategy. See Getting Started with Amazon Q Developer agent for code transformation for a how-to guide on using Q Developer to transform Java applications.

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