Beyond the Strangler Fig: The Rise of Visual Extraction in Enterprise Architecture

The $3.6 trillion technical debt mountain isn't just a balance sheet problem; it’s an existential threat to enterprise agility. For decades, the standard response to legacy rot has been the "Strangler Fig" pattern—gradually replacing system components until the old core is gone. But in a world where 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their timelines, the Strangler Fig is proving too slow for the modern pace of business.

The bottleneck isn't the coding; it's the archaeology. When 67% of legacy systems lack up-to-date documentation, developers spend more time playing detective than building features. We are seeing a shift in enterprise architecture away from manual discovery toward "Visual Extraction"—a method that uses actual user workflows to reverse-engineer systems in days, not years.

TL;DR: Visual Reverse Engineering bypasses the "documentation gap" by using recorded user interactions to automatically generate modern React components, API contracts, and E2E tests, reducing modernization timelines by 70%.

The Failure of "Big Bang" and the Limits of Strangler Fig#

Enterprise architecture has long been trapped between two losing bets. On one hand, the "Big Bang" rewrite attempts to replace everything at once. This usually results in an 18-24 month project that is over budget and under-delivered. On the other hand, the Strangler Fig pattern provides a safer, incremental approach but often stalls because the "source of truth" is buried in undocumented COBOL, Delphi, or legacy Java codebases.

The primary friction point is the Manual Discovery Phase. In a typical enterprise environment, it takes an average of 40 hours to manually document and reconstruct a single complex legacy screen. When you have 500+ screens, the math simply doesn't work for a fast-moving organization.

Visual Reverse Engineering: The New Frontier#

The future of enterprise architecture isn't rewriting from scratch—it's understanding what you already have by observing it in motion. Visual Reverse Engineering, the core philosophy behind Replay, treats the running application as the ultimate source of truth.

Instead of reading stale documentation or decompiling obfuscated binaries, architects record real user workflows. Replay captures the DOM state, the network calls, and the business logic transitions. It then uses AI to synthesize this data into clean, modular React components and TypeScript definitions.

💰 ROI Insight: By moving from manual documentation to automated visual extraction, enterprises reduce the cost per screen from roughly $6,000 (40 hours @ $150/hr) to $600 (4 hours @ $150/hr).

From Black Box to Documented Codebase#

Most legacy systems are "black boxes." We know what goes in and what comes out, but the "how" is a mystery. Replay transforms this by generating four critical artifacts automatically:

1. •The Library (Design System): Extracts consistent UI patterns into a reusable React component library.
2. •The Flows (Architecture): Maps how data moves between screens and services.
3. •The Blueprints (Editor): Provides a visual canvas to refactor extracted components before they hit the repo.
4. •The AI Automation Suite: Generates the unit tests and API contracts required to ensure parity.

Implementation: From Video to React Components#

To understand how this fits into a modern CI/CD and enterprise architecture stack, let's look at the output. When Replay records a legacy insurance claims portal, it doesn't just "scrape" the UI. It identifies the underlying state machine.

Step 1: Assessment and Recording#

The architect identifies the high-value "Gold Path" workflows. A subject matter expert (SME) performs the task in the legacy environment while Replay records the session.

Step 2: Extraction and Componentization#

Replay analyzes the recording and identifies repeating patterns. It separates the "business logic" from the "legacy styling."

Step 3: Code Generation#

The system generates a modern React component. Below is an example of what a generated component looks like after Replay processes a legacy form.

typescript
// Example: Generated component from Replay visual extraction
// Legacy System: Claims Management Portal (v4.2)
// Target: Modern React + Tailwind + Zod Validation

import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
import { useForm } from 'react-hook-form';
import { zodResolver } from '@hookform/resolvers/zod';
import * as z from 'zod';
import { Button, Input, Alert } from '@/components/ui';

const claimSchema = z.object({
  policyNumber: z.string().min(1, "Required").regex(/^[A-Z]{2}-\d{6}$/),
  incidentDate: z.string(),
  claimAmount: z.number().positive(),
});

type ClaimFormData = z.infer<typeof claimSchema>;

export function ExtractedClaimForm({ initialData }: { initialData?: Partial<ClaimFormData> }) {
  // Replay preserved the legacy state transitions and API mapping
  const { register, handleSubmit, formState: { errors } } = useForm<ClaimFormData>({
    resolver: zodResolver(claimSchema),
    defaultValues: initialData
  });

  const onSubmit = async (data: ClaimFormData) => {
    // Replay generated this API contract based on observed network traffic
    const response = await fetch('/api/v2/claims/submit', {
      method: 'POST',
      body: JSON.stringify(data),
    });
    if (!response.ok) { /* Error handling logic preserved */ }
  };

  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)} className="space-y-4 p-6 bg-white rounded-lg shadow">
      <h2 className="text-xl font-bold">Submit Claim</h2>
      <div>
        <label>Policy Number</label>
        <Input {...register("policyNumber")} error={errors.policyNumber?.message} />
      </div>
      {/* Logic for conditional rendering extracted from legacy session */}
      <Button type="submit">Process Transaction</Button>
    </form>
  );
}

⚠️ Warning: Never trust a direct 1:1 migration without a generated API contract. Visual extraction must be paired with network intercept analysis to ensure the modern UI talks to the legacy backend correctly.

Bridging the Documentation Gap with API Contracts#

One of the biggest risks in enterprise architecture is the "hidden dependency." You migrate a screen, but you miss a legacy SOAP call that triggers a downstream mainframe process.

Replay’s AI Automation Suite generates API contracts by observing the traffic during the recording session. It identifies headers, payloads, and response structures that haven't been documented since 2008.

typescript
// Generated API Contract: Legacy Insurance Backend
// Source: Replay Network Interceptor

export interface LegacyClaimResponse {
  /** Map to legacy field: 'CLAIM_ID_PK' */
  claimId: string;
  /** Map to legacy field: 'STAT_CD' (01: Pending, 02: Approved, 03: Rejected) */
  status: 'PENDING' | 'APPROVED' | 'REJECTED';
  timestamp: string;
  metadata: {
    originating_office: string;
    adjuster_id: number;
  }
}

Security and Compliance in Regulated Industries#

For leaders in Financial Services, Healthcare, and Government, the cloud isn't always an option. Legacy systems often handle PII (Personally Identifiable Information) or PHI (Protected Health Information).

Replay is built for these high-stakes environments. It offers:

• •SOC2 Type II Compliance: Ensuring data handled during the extraction process is secure.
• •On-Premise Deployment: For air-gapped environments or strict data residency requirements.
• •HIPAA-Ready Workflows: Automatic PII masking during the recording phase so sensitive data never leaves your secure perimeter.

📝 Note: When using Replay in a HIPAA environment, the "Blueprints" editor allows you to scrub sensitive data from the visual recordings before the metadata is used to generate code components.

The 4-Step Modernization Workflow#

How does an enterprise architecture team actually deploy Replay? It follows a structured, repeatable four-step process.

Step 1: Inventory & Prioritization#

Use the Replay Technical Debt Audit tool to scan your existing application footprint. Identify the "Black Boxes" with the highest business value and the lowest current documentation.

Step 2: High-Fidelity Recording#

Deploy the Replay recorder to a staging or UAT environment. Capture 5-10 sessions of expert users performing core business tasks. This captures the edge cases that manual requirements gathering always misses.

Step 3: Automated Extraction#

The Replay engine parses the sessions. It extracts the CSS into a modern Tailwind or Styled Components theme and converts the HTML/JS into functional React components.

Step 4: Refinement and E2E Testing#

Architects use the "Blueprints" editor to refine the generated code. Simultaneously, Replay generates Playwright or Cypress E2E tests based on the recorded sessions to ensure the new component behaves exactly like the old one.

Calculating the ROI of Visual Extraction#

The business case for Replay is built on the massive reduction in "Discovery Time." In a traditional 18-month rewrite:

• •Months 1-6: Discovery and Documentation (Manual Archaeology)
• •Months 7-15: Development
• •Months 16-18: Testing and Bug Fixing

With Replay, the timeline shifts:

• •Week 1: Recording and Automated Extraction
• •Weeks 2-6: Refinement and Integration
• •Weeks 7-8: Parallel Running and Cutover

This represents a 70% average time savings, allowing organizations to modernize an entire portfolio of applications in the time it used to take to do one.

Frequently Asked Questions#

How long does legacy extraction take?#

While a manual rewrite takes 18-24 months, a Replay-assisted modernization typically takes 2-8 weeks per module. The initial extraction of a screen happens in minutes; the remaining time is spent on integration and business logic validation.

What about business logic preservation?#

Replay doesn't just copy the UI; it records the state changes and network interactions. This allows the AI to reconstruct the "if-then" logic that governs how the UI responds to user input, ensuring functional parity with the legacy system.

Does Replay work with mainframes or green-screen apps?#

Yes. As long as there is a web-based terminal emulator or a thick-client UI that can be accessed, Replay can record the interactions. For pure web-based legacy (Java, .NET, PHP, Delphi), the extraction is even more seamless.

How does this handle technical debt?#

Replay doesn't just move the debt; it audits it. The platform identifies redundant code paths and unused UI elements during the extraction process, allowing architects to "clean as they go" rather than performing a "lift and shift" of bad code.

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Ready to modernize without rewriting? Book a pilot with Replay - see your legacy screen extracted live during the call.