Government Pension Fund Modernization: Extracting Critical Benefit Rules from AS/400

The $3.6 trillion technical debt crisis isn't just a private sector problem; it is the silent killer of public trust in government pension systems. In state and local agencies across the country, the "Crown Jewels"—the complex, decades-old benefit calculation rules—are trapped inside IBM AS/400 (IBM i) "green screens." These systems, often running RPG or COBOL code written before the current workforce was born, are brittle, undocumented, and increasingly impossible to maintain. When a legislative change requires a shift in how cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) are calculated, agencies face a terrifying reality: the logic is buried in a black box that no one fully understands.

Government pension fund modernization is no longer a "nice-to-have" digital transformation project; it is a fiduciary necessity. However, the traditional approach to modernization—manual code audits, months of requirements gathering, and high-risk "big bang" rewrites—is fundamentally broken. Statistics show that 70% of legacy rewrites fail or significantly exceed their timelines, often leaving agencies with millions in sunk costs and the same legacy problems.

Replay offers a different path. By using Visual Reverse Engineering, agencies can bypass the "source code archeology" phase and extract business logic directly from the user interface where it is most visible and validated.

TL;DR:

• •The Problem: Critical pension rules are trapped in undocumented AS/400 systems; 67% of these systems lack any formal documentation.
• •The Risk: Manual rewrites take an average of 18-24 months and have a 70% failure rate.
• •The Solution: Replay uses Visual Reverse Engineering to convert recorded workflows into documented React components and Design Systems.
• •The Impact: Reduce modernization time by 70%, cutting the time per screen from 40 hours to just 4 hours.

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The AS/400 Bottleneck in Government Pension Fund Modernization#

For decades, the AS/400 has been the workhorse of the public sector. Its reliability is legendary, but its rigidity is now a liability. In the context of government pension fund modernization, the challenge isn't just the hardware; it's the "hidden logic."

Visual Reverse Engineering is the process of recording real user interactions with legacy interfaces to automatically generate modern code, documentation, and architectural flows.

According to Replay’s analysis, the average pension administrator interacts with over 200 distinct screens to process a single complex retirement claim. Each screen contains "hidden" validation rules:

• •If "Years of Service" > 20, enable "Early Retirement" flag.
• •If "Disability Status" is "Y," bypass "Age Requirement" check.
• •Calculate "Final Average Salary" based on the highest 36 consecutive months of earnings.

When these rules are only defined in RPG logic or, worse, in the "tribal knowledge" of senior processors who know which F-keys to hit, the system becomes a single point of failure. Industry experts recommend that agencies stop trying to read the old code and start observing the system's behavior. This "behavioral extraction" is where Replay excels.

The Documentation Gap#

67% of legacy systems lack documentation. In a government setting, this leads to "analysis paralysis." Architects spend months trying to map out 5250 terminal screens, only to find that the "source of truth" in the code doesn't match how the business actually operates.

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Why Manual Extraction Fails (and What Replay Changes)#

The traditional path to government pension fund modernization involves hiring a legion of consultants to sit with pension officers, watch them work, and write "Functional Requirement Documents" (FRDs). This process is slow, prone to human error, and creates a massive lag between discovery and development.

Video-to-code is the automated translation of a screen recording into functional, structured UI components and logic definitions.

By using Replay, the "Flows" feature maps every screen transition in the AS/400 environment. If a user moves from a "Member Search" screen to a "Contribution History" screen, Replay captures the data inputs, the navigational triggers, and the resulting UI state. This allows developers to move from a recording to a functional React component in a fraction of the time.

Learn more about Visual Reverse Engineering

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Technical Implementation: From Green Screen to React#

When modernizing a pension system, you aren't just changing the UI; you are rebuilding the "Benefit Engine." Replay’s AI Automation Suite analyzes the recorded video of the AS/400 session and identifies key data entities.

For example, a "Pensioner Profile" screen on an AS/400 might look like a wall of green text. Replay identifies that "FLD001" is actually

and "FLD042" is .

Step 1: Defining the Schema#

First, we define the TypeScript interfaces that represent the legacy data structures extracted by Replay.

typescript
// Extracted via Replay Blueprints from AS/400 Screen ID: PENS042
export interface PensionBenefitRules {
  memberId: string;
  yearsOfService: number;
  isVested: boolean;
  tierLevel: 'Tier1' | 'Tier2' | 'Tier3';
  calculationMethod: 'High3' | 'High5';
  disabilityStatus: boolean;
  lastContributionDate: Date;
}

export interface BenefitCalculationResult {
  monthlyBaseAmount: number;
  colaAdjustment: number;
  totalMonthlyBenefit: number;
  effectiveDate: string;
}

Step 2: Generating the Modern Component#

Once the logic is captured in Replay’s "Library," it can be exported as clean, documented React code. This isn't just a "reskin"; it's a component that understands the business rules it inherited.

tsx
import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
import { BenefitCard, StatusBadge } from '@/components/ui';

// This component logic was reverse-engineered from 
// the "Retirement Eligibility" workflow in Replay
const BenefitEligibilityModule: React.FC<{ memberData: PensionBenefitRules }> = ({ memberData }) => {
  const [eligibility, setEligibility] = useState<boolean>(false);

  useEffect(() => {
    // Logic extracted from AS/400 sub-routines via Replay AI
    const checkEligibility = () => {
      if (memberData.yearsOfService >= 20 || (memberData.yearsOfService >= 5 && memberData.disabilityStatus)) {
        setEligibility(true);
      }
    };
    checkEligibility();
  }, [memberData]);

  return (
    <BenefitCard title="Retirement Eligibility Status">
      <div className="flex justify-between items-center">
        <span>Vesting Status:</span>
        <StatusBadge variant={memberData.isVested ? 'success' : 'warning'}>
          {memberData.isVested ? 'Fully Vested' : 'Not Vested'}
        </StatusBadge>
      </div>
      {eligibility && (
        <div className="mt-4 p-4 bg-green-50 border border-green-200 rounded-md">
          <p className="text-green-800 font-medium">
            Member is eligible for immediate benefit disbursement.
          </p>
        </div>
      )}
    </BenefitCard>
  );
};

export default BenefitEligibilityModule;

By generating code that is already mapped to the legacy business rules, agencies avoid the "interpretation gap" that usually occurs between business analysts and developers.

Read about how to structure legacy components

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Accelerating Government Pension Fund Modernization with Replay#

The Replay platform is built for the specific constraints of highly regulated environments like government agencies, insurance providers, and healthcare systems.

1. The Library (Design System)#

As you record AS/400 workflows, Replay automatically identifies recurring UI patterns. In a pension system, "Member Search," "Address Update," and "Benefit Summary" screens appear hundreds of times. Replay consolidates these into a unified Design System. Instead of building 500 individual screens, you build 50 core components that power those 500 screens.

2. Flows (Architectural Mapping)#

Understanding the "Happy Path" vs. the "Exception Path" is the hardest part of government pension fund modernization. Replay’s Flows feature visualizes the entire decision tree of your legacy application.

• •What happens if a user enters a negative contribution?
• •Which screen does the system jump to if a Social Security Number is missing? Replay captures these edge cases automatically, ensuring the modern React application handles them identically to the legacy system.

3. Security and Compliance#

Government data is sensitive. Replay is built for SOC2 and HIPAA compliance and can be deployed On-Premise. This allows agencies to modernize their systems without their data ever leaving their secure network.

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The Economics of Modernization: 40 Hours vs. 4 Hours#

The math of legacy debt is brutal. If a typical pension system has 1,000 screens (a conservative estimate for an AS/400 environment), a manual rewrite requires 40,000 man-hours. At an average developer/analyst rate, that is a $6M - $10M investment just for the UI and basic logic layer.

According to Replay’s analysis, using Visual Reverse Engineering reduces that 40-hour-per-screen average to just 4 hours. This shifts the project timeline from 2 years to roughly 4-5 months. More importantly, it reduces the risk of project cancellation—a common fate for government IT initiatives that fail to show value within the first fiscal year.

Calculate your modernization ROI

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Strategies for Successful Extraction#

Industry experts recommend a phased approach to government pension fund modernization. Rather than trying to replace the entire AS/400 at once, agencies should:

1. •Identify High-Value Workflows: Focus on the workflows with the highest volume or the most frequent legislative changes (e.g., Benefit Calculations).
2. •Record with Replay: Have senior pension officers record their "perfect" workflow.
3. •Generate Blueprints: Use Replay's Blueprints to create the technical specification for the new React front-end.
4. •Parallel Run: Run the new React UI alongside the legacy system to validate that the benefit calculations match to the penny.

This "Strangler Fig" pattern allows the agency to slowly migrate functionality away from the AS/400 while maintaining a working system at all times.

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Frequently Asked Questions#

Can Replay extract logic from "Green Screens" without access to the RPG source code?#

Yes. Replay uses Visual Reverse Engineering to observe the inputs, outputs, and UI changes on the screen. It does not require the original source code to understand how the system behaves. This is critical for agencies that have lost their original documentation or no longer have RPG developers on staff.

Is Replay's generated code production-ready?#

Replay generates clean, structured TypeScript and React code that follows modern best practices. While it provides a massive head start (saving ~70% of development time), your engineering team will still perform standard code reviews and integrate the components into your specific backend APIs. It acts as a high-fidelity bridge between the legacy UI and the modern stack.

How does Replay handle data security in a government environment?#

Replay is built for regulated industries. We offer On-Premise deployment options where all video processing and code generation happen within your agency's firewall. We are SOC2 compliant and follow strict data obfuscation protocols to ensure PII (Personally Identifiable Information) is protected during the recording and analysis phases.

Does government pension fund modernization require a total system shutdown?#

No. By using Replay to build a modern front-end and service layer, you can keep the AS/400 as a "system of record" while providing users with a modern, web-based interface. This allows for a gradual transition rather than a high-risk "cutover" event.

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Conclusion: Reclaiming the Future of Pension Management#

The technical debt of the AS/400 is a weight on every government agency, but it doesn't have to be a permanent one. By shifting from manual code analysis to Visual Reverse Engineering, agencies can finally extract the critical benefit rules that have been locked away for decades.

Government pension fund modernization is about more than just a prettier interface; it’s about agility, security, and the ability to serve constituents with the speed they expect in the 21st century. With Replay, the path from a 1980s green screen to a 2024 React application is no longer a multi-year gamble—it’s a predictable, automated process.

Ready to modernize without rewriting? Book a pilot with Replay