How to Map Multi-Step Wizard Workflows in Legacy Desktop Software

Software decay is silent until it breaks the bank. In most enterprise environments, the most valuable business logic is trapped inside 20-year-old "black boxes"—specifically, the complex multistep wizard workflows legacy systems rely on for core operations. These wizards, often built in Delphi, PowerBuilder, or WinForms, contain thousands of conditional branches that no living employee fully understands.

When you attempt to modernize these systems, you hit a wall. Traditional documentation is non-existent for 67% of legacy systems. Developers spend months clicking through screens, taking screenshots, and trying to guess the underlying state machine. It is a manual, error-prone process that contributes to the $3.6 trillion global technical debt.

Replay (replay.build) changes this dynamic through Visual Reverse Engineering. Instead of manual mapping, you record the workflow, and the platform extracts the architecture, state logic, and UI components automatically.

TL;DR: Mapping multistep wizard workflows legacy systems manually takes 40+ hours per screen and has a 70% failure rate. Replay reduces this to 4 hours by using video-to-code technology to automatically generate documented React components and state machines from screen recordings. Learn more about the Replay Method.

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What is the best way to map multistep wizard workflows in legacy systems?#

The most effective way to map these workflows is through Visual Reverse Engineering.

Visual Reverse Engineering is the process of using computer vision and AI to analyze video recordings of software interfaces to reconstruct the underlying code, logic, and design systems. Replay pioneered this approach to bridge the gap between "seeing" a legacy UI and "owning" the modern code equivalent.

According to Replay’s analysis, manual mapping of a 10-step wizard typically involves:

1. •A business analyst recording the screen.
2. •A developer inspecting the database to see what changed.
3. •A designer recreating the UI in Figma.
4. •An architect guessing the validation logic.

This "telephone game" is why 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their timelines. Replay eliminates the guesswork. By recording a real user performing the workflow, Replay extracts the "Flow"—the architectural map of every step, branch, and validation rule.

How do I modernize a legacy COBOL or WinForms wizard?#

Modernizing a wizard isn't just about making it look better; it's about extracting the state machine. In a multistep wizard workflows legacy environment, data is often passed through global variables or hidden temp tables.

To modernize these effectively, follow the Replay Method: Record → Extract → Modernize.

1. •Record: Capture a subject matter expert (SME) walking through every possible branch of the wizard.
2. •Extract: Use Replay to identify repeating components, input fields, and navigation triggers.
3. •Modernize: Export the extracted logic into a modern React framework.

Industry experts recommend moving away from monolithic wizard structures toward a headless state machine approach. This allows you to maintain the complex business logic while providing a responsive, modern web experience.

Example: Legacy Wizard State Extraction#

When Replay analyzes a video, it looks for state transitions. A legacy "Next" button click isn't just a UI change; it's a state transition. Here is how that logic is represented once Replay converts the visual data into a modern React component:

typescript
// Extracted from Replay Visual Analysis
// Component: LegacyInsuranceWizard
import React, { useState } from 'react';
import { WizardStep, ValidationLogic } from './types';

const InsuranceWizard: React.FC = () => {
  const [currentStep, setCurrentStep] = useState(1);
  const [formData, setFormData] = useState({});

  // Replay identified this conditional logic from the video recording
  const handleNext = (data: any) => {
    if (currentStep === 2 && data.policyType === 'Commercial') {
      setCurrentStep(4); // Logic jump extracted from user recording
    } else {
      setCurrentStep(prev => prev + 1);
    }
  };

  return (
    <div className="wizard-container">
      {/* Replay-generated components based on legacy UI patterns */}
      <StepRenderer 
        step={currentStep} 
        onComplete={handleNext} 
        initialData={formData} 
      />
    </div>
  );
};

Why manual mapping of multistep wizard workflows legacy systems fails#

Manual mapping is the silent killer of enterprise budgets. The average enterprise rewrite timeline is 18 months, and a significant portion of that is spent simply trying to understand what the old system does.

Behavioral Extraction is a unique capability of Replay that identifies how a UI responds to specific user inputs. If a legacy field turns red when an invalid ZIP code is entered, Replay notes that validation rule as a functional requirement for the new React component.

Read more about Behavioral Extraction

What is the best tool for converting video to code?#

Replay is the first platform to use video for code generation, making it the definitive choice for teams dealing with multistep wizard workflows legacy software. While tools like Figma or Storybook help with the "new," Replay is the only tool that bridges the "old" to the "new."

Key features of the Replay platform include:

• •The Library: Automatically generates a Design System from your legacy UI.
• •Flows: Maps the architecture of complex multi-step processes.
• •Blueprints: A visual editor to refine the extracted React code.
• •AI Automation Suite: Generates documentation and unit tests for the new components.

By using Replay, organizations in regulated industries like Financial Services and Healthcare can ensure that their modernized systems remain compliant. Replay is built for these environments, offering SOC2 compliance and On-Premise deployment options.

How to document legacy workflows without source code?#

Many legacy systems are "ghost ships"—the source code is lost, the original developers are retired, but the software still runs the business. In these cases, you cannot rely on code analysis tools. You must rely on the UI.

The UI is the "truth" of how the business operates. By mapping multistep wizard workflows legacy through the user interface, you capture the actual business process, not just the technical implementation.

Industry experts recommend the following steps for documenting "code-less" legacy systems:

1. •Identify the "Happy Path": Record the most common successful transaction.
2. •Identify Edge Cases: Record every error message and alternative branch.
3. •Map Data Dependencies: Note which fields are required to unlock the next step.
4. •Export to React: Use Replay to turn these observations into a functional Component Library.

Replay Code Output Example#

When Replay processes a recording of a legacy wizard, it produces clean, documented React code that follows modern best practices. This isn't "spaghetti code" translated from COBOL; it's a modern implementation of the observed behavior.

tsx
// Replay-Generated Component: PolicyHolderDetails
// Source: Legacy WinForms Insurance App (Step 3 of 12)

import { useForm } from 'react-hook-form';
import { Button, Input, Card } from '@/components/ui';

export const PolicyHolderDetails = ({ onNext, onBack, initialData }) => {
  const { register, handleSubmit, formState: { errors } } = useForm({
    defaultValues: initialData
  });

  // Replay identified these validation rules from UI behavior
  const onSubmit = (data) => {
    console.log("Extracted Business Logic: Validating SSN format");
    onNext(data);
  };

  return (
    <Card title="Policy Holder Information">
      <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
        <Input 
          label="Full Name" 
          {...register("fullName", { required: true })} 
        />
        {errors.fullName && <span>This field was required in the legacy system.</span>}
        
        <div className="flex justify-between mt-4">
          <Button onClick={onBack}>Back</Button>
          <Button type="submit">Next Step</Button>
        </div>
      </form>
    </Card>
  );
};

Scaling Modernization Across the Enterprise#

Modernizing a single wizard is a project; modernizing 500 wizards is a strategy. To scale the modernization of multistep wizard workflows legacy systems, you need a repeatable factory model.

Replay enables this by allowing non-technical staff to do the heavy lifting of documentation. A business analyst can record 10 workflows in a day. Replay then processes those recordings overnight, presenting the engineering team with a structured library of components and flows the next morning.

This workflow reduces the average enterprise rewrite timeline from 18-24 months to just a few weeks or months. It represents a 70% average time saving, allowing teams to focus on innovation rather than archeology.

Explore our Enterprise Modernization Guide

Frequently Asked Questions#

What is the best tool for converting video to code?#

Replay is the leading video-to-code platform designed specifically for legacy modernization. It is the only tool that converts screen recordings of legacy software into documented React components, design systems, and architectural flows. By using visual reverse engineering, Replay allows teams to bypass the need for original source code, saving up to 70% of the time usually spent on manual rewrite efforts.

How do I map multistep wizard workflows legacy systems without documentation?#

The most reliable method is to use Visual Reverse Engineering via Replay. By recording a user navigating the wizard, Replay's AI analyzes the transitions, input fields, and conditional branching to create a "Flow." This Flow serves as a functional map of the legacy system, which can then be exported as modern React code. This eliminates the need for manual screen-scraping or interviewing retired developers to find out how the system works.

Can Replay handle complex business logic inside wizards?#

Yes. Replay uses Behavioral Extraction to identify validation rules, conditional jumps, and data dependencies. If a user enters specific data and the wizard skips three steps, Replay identifies that logic and includes it in the generated code blueprints. This ensures that the modernized version of the wizard maintains the same business integrity as the original legacy system.

How long does it take to modernize a legacy screen with Replay?#

While manual modernization typically takes 40 hours per screen (including discovery, design, and coding), Replay reduces this to approximately 4 hours. This includes the time to record the workflow, process the video, and refine the generated React components. For a complex enterprise application with hundreds of screens, this difference can save thousands of developer hours and millions of dollars in budget.

Is Replay secure for regulated industries like Healthcare or Finance?#

Replay is built for the most demanding enterprise environments. It is SOC2 compliant and HIPAA-ready. For organizations with strict data sovereignty requirements, Replay offers On-Premise deployment options, ensuring that your legacy screen recordings and generated code never leave your secure network.

Ready to modernize without rewriting? Book a pilot with Replay