Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

design recovery
     
         A subtask of {reverse engineering} in which domain
        knowledge, external information, and deduction of fuzzy
        reasoning are added to the observations of the subject system
        to identify meaningful higher level abstractions beyond those
        obtained directly by examining the system itself.
     
        In other words, design recovery aims to work out what a system
        or component was designed to do rather than just examining its
        subcomponents and their interrelationships.
     
        (1996-12-08)