Migration Strategy for Upgrading VB 6.0 Application to VB .NET

When we start developing any new software solution, certain steps are taken. We begin with a plan, identify processes, gather requirements, and eventually build the architecture of the solution. Once things start taking shape, we start with development. Why do we choose this path? We all know that the path for doing the analysis and design up front has been proven to save a lot of time and cost for software development. In order to migrate projects from any prior version of Visual Basic, the path for analysis and design up front yields the best results.

The analysis part is slightly different in this case. We begin by studying the current application, and try to identify code blocks that require changes. In order to migrate your VB applications, it is not recommended that you directly convert your existing applications to .NET and fix the converted code in .NET. It is always better to take the existing application to the "Migration Ready" stage.

Here are the steps for migrating applications from VB 6.0 to VB .NET:

1. Evaluate the project and create a migration strategy.
2. Make the changes in VB 6.0 project and create a "Migration Strategy."
3. Migrate using the Visual Basic .NET Migration tool.
4. If the changes are not at par, make more changes and use the Migration tool (repeat Steps 2 and 3 as necessary).
5. Get developers at speed and make changes in .NET.
6. Build the .NET solution.