Identifying Shadow IT Workflows: Using Visual Discovery to Map 300+ Undocumented Business Processes

Your enterprise is running on software nobody knows exists. In the basement of your tech stack, beneath the shiny microservices and the Kubernetes clusters, lies a sprawling labyrinth of "shadow workflows"—undocumented Access databases, legacy VB6 terminals, and geriatric mainframe screens that keep your core business alive.

When a Tier-1 financial institution or a global healthcare provider decides to modernize, they don't just face a coding challenge; they face an archaeological one. Industry experts recommend that before a single line of code is rewritten, an organization must account for the 67% of legacy systems that lack any form of technical documentation. Without this, you aren't modernizing; you're guessing.

TL;DR: Identifying shadow workflows using visual discovery is the only way to bypass the "documentation gap" in enterprise environments. By recording real user interactions, Replay converts legacy UI workflows into documented React components and structured design systems, reducing the modernization timeline from 18 months to mere weeks. This approach saves 70% of the time usually wasted on manual requirements gathering.

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The $3.6 Trillion Problem: Why Documentation Fails#

The global technical debt has ballooned to a staggering $3.6 trillion. For most enterprises, this debt isn't just about old code; it's about lost knowledge. When the original developers of a 20-year-old insurance claims system retire, the business logic retires with them.

Manual mapping of these processes is a recipe for failure. 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their timeline because the "source of truth" is trapped in the muscle memory of your operations staff, not in a Confluence page.

Shadow IT is the ecosystem of applications, workflows, and processes managed outside the primary IT department's oversight.

Video-to-code is the process of using visual recording and AI-driven analysis to extract UI patterns, business logic, and user flows from a legacy application and programmatically transform them into modern codebases.

According to Replay's analysis, the average enterprise screen takes 40 hours to manually document, design, and recode. When you are dealing with 300+ undocumented processes, that’s 12,000 man-hours—a timeline that no modern business can afford. Replay reduces this to 4 hours per screen, enabling a scale of discovery previously thought impossible.

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Identifying Shadow Workflows Using Visual Discovery#

The traditional "Interview and Document" phase of a project is the primary bottleneck. Business analysts spend months watching users work, taking screenshots, and writing Jira tickets. This process is prone to "user omission"—users often forget the "workarounds" they use to fix bugs in the legacy system.

By identifying shadow workflows using visual discovery, you capture the actual behavior, not the reported behavior. Visual discovery involves recording a user performing their daily tasks. These recordings are then ingested by a platform like Replay, which uses computer vision and AI to "deconstruct" the interface.

The Visual Discovery Pipeline:#

1. •Capture: Users record their standard operating procedures (SOPs) on the legacy system.
2. •Analysis: The AI identifies repetitive UI patterns, data entry points, and navigation flows.
3. •Synthesis: The platform generates a Design System and React components that mirror the legacy functionality but utilize modern architecture.
4. •Documentation: Automatically generated "Flows" provide a visual map of the entire business process.

Comparison: Manual Mapping vs. Replay Visual Discovery#

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Technical Deep Dive: Mapping Legacy DOM to React Components#

Identifying shadow workflows using automated tools requires a sophisticated understanding of how legacy UIs (often rendered in non-standard ways) translate to the modern DOM.

When Replay ingests a recording of a legacy PowerBuilder or Delphi application, it isn't just taking a video. It is identifying the structural intent of the interface. For example, a "Grid" in an old terminal isn't just a series of lines; it's a data-bound component with specific state requirements.

Here is an example of how a captured shadow workflow is transformed into a functional, typed React component using Replay’s output logic:

typescript
// Replay Generated Component: ClaimsAdjustmentTable.tsx
// Original Source: Legacy Mainframe Terminal (Module 402)
import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
import { Table, Button, Badge } from '@/components/ui';
import { useLegacyData } from '@/hooks/useLegacyData';

interface ClaimData {
  id: string;
  policyNumber: string;
  status: 'PENDING' | 'APPROVED' | 'DENIED';
  amount: number;
}

export const ClaimsAdjustmentTable: React.FC = () => {
  const { data, loading, error } = useLegacyData('/api/v1/claims/shadow-export');
  const [selectedClaim, setSelectedClaim] = useState<string | null>(null);

  // Replay identified this specific validation logic from user interaction patterns
  const handleApprove = (id: string) => {
    console.log(`Approving claim ${id} based on captured workflow logic.`);
    // Business Logic: Claims over $5000 require secondary audit (Captured via Replay Flows)
  };

  if (loading) return <div>Analyzing Legacy Stream...</div>;

  return (
    <div className="p-6 bg-slate-50 rounded-xl border border-slate-200">
      <h2 className="text-xl font-bold mb-4">Claims Processing Workflow</h2>
      <Table>
        <thead>
          <tr>
            <th>Policy #</th>
            <th>Status</th>
            <th>Amount</th>
            <th>Actions</th>
          </tr>
        </thead>
        <tbody>
          {data.map((claim: ClaimData) => (
            <tr key={claim.id} className="hover:bg-slate-100 transition-colors">
              <td>{claim.policyNumber}</td>
              <td>
                <Badge variant={claim.status === 'PENDING' ? 'warning' : 'success'}>
                  {claim.status}
                </Badge>
              </td>
              <td>${claim.amount.toLocaleString()}</td>
              <td>
                <Button onClick={() => handleApprove(claim.id)}>Process</Button>
              </td>
            </tr>
          ))}
        </tbody>
      </Table>
    </div>
  );
};

This code isn't just a generic template. It is a direct reflection of the Component Library generated during the discovery phase. By identifying shadow workflows using this granular approach, developers inherit a codebase that is already aligned with the business's actual needs.

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Scaling to 300+ Processes: The Replay Methodology#

Mapping 300+ processes manually would require a small army of consultants. To achieve this at scale, we use a tiered "Discovery to Deployment" framework.

Phase 1: The Library (Design System)#

Before mapping workflows, you must identify the building blocks. Replay’s Library feature scans the recordings to find commonalities. If 50 different shadow applications all use a similar "Customer Search" pattern, Replay consolidates them into a single, reusable React component. This eliminates the redundancy that plagues legacy environments.

Phase 2: Flows (Architecture Mapping)#

Identifying shadow workflows using the Flows feature allows architects to see the "connective tissue" between applications. In many regulated industries, a user might start a process in a web portal, move to an Excel spreadsheet for calculations, and finish in a green-screen terminal. Replay captures this cross-application journey, documenting the entire "Flow" as a unified architectural diagram.

Phase 3: Blueprints (The Implementation)#

Once the flows are mapped, Replay provides Blueprints. These are the functional "specs" that AI uses to generate the final code.

typescript
// Example of a Replay Blueprint Definition for an undocumented workflow
const ShadowWorkflowBlueprint = {
  id: "wf_99283_claims_entry",
  sourceSystem: "AS400_Terminal_Emulator",
  targetArchitecture: "Next.js / Tailwind / Prisma",
  capturedSteps: [
    { step: 1, action: "OCR_DATA_ENTRY", field: "PolicyNum" },
    { step: 2, action: "VALIDATE_VIA_EXTERNAL_SOAP_API", endpoint: "auth-v2" },
    { step: 3, action: "CONDITIONAL_REDIRECT", logic: "if amount > 10k" }
  ],
  securityCompliance: "HIPAA-ready"
};

Modernizing Legacy Workflows requires this level of detail to ensure that the new system doesn't break existing business rules.

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Governance and Security in Regulated Environments#

For industries like Financial Services and Healthcare, identifying shadow workflows using third-party tools can be a security concern. This is why the discovery process must happen within a controlled environment.

Replay is built for these high-stakes scenarios. With SOC2 compliance, HIPAA-readiness, and On-Premise deployment options, organizations can map their most sensitive shadow IT without data leaving their firewall.

According to Replay's analysis, the primary risk in modernization isn't the new code—it's the data leakage that occurs when undocumented processes are ignored. When a "shadow" process is brought into the light through visual discovery, it can finally be subjected to modern security protocols, encryption, and audit trails.

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Overcoming the "Documentation Debt"#

Documentation debt is the silent killer of enterprise agility. When you have 300+ undocumented processes, you are essentially flying blind. You cannot migrate to the cloud, you cannot implement AI, and you cannot improve user experience because you are afraid of breaking a process you don't understand.

Identifying shadow workflows using Replay changes the paradigm from manual extraction to automated discovery. Instead of spending 18 months trying to understand what your systems do, you can spend that time actually building the future.

Key Benefits of Visual Discovery:#

• •Eliminate Omissions: Capture the "hidden" steps that users forget to mention.
• •Standardize UI: Convert fragmented legacy screens into a cohesive Design System.
• •Reduce Risk: Ensure every edge case is documented before the legacy system is decommissioned.
• •Accelerate Onboarding: New developers can use the "Flows" generated by Replay to understand the business logic in hours, not months.

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Frequently Asked Questions#

What is the primary risk of identifying shadow workflows using manual methods?#

The primary risk is Incomplete Requirement Capture. Users often develop "muscle memory" workarounds for legacy system bugs. When interviewed, they rarely mention these steps because they no longer perceive them as "tasks." Manual methods miss these nuances, leading to a new system that fails to meet the actual operational needs, often resulting in the 70% failure rate seen in enterprise rewrites.

How does Replay handle data privacy during the recording phase?#

Replay is designed for regulated industries like Healthcare and Finance. It includes PII (Personally Identifiable Information) masking capabilities and can be deployed On-Premise. This ensures that while the workflow and UI structure are captured, sensitive customer data remains protected and does not leave the secure environment, maintaining SOC2 and HIPAA compliance.

Can visual discovery map workflows that span multiple different applications?#

Yes. Identifying shadow workflows using Replay allows for cross-application mapping. Many business processes are "fragmented," requiring a user to jump between a web browser, a legacy terminal, and a desktop application like Excel. Replay’s "Flows" feature tracks the user’s journey across these disparate windows to create a single, unified architectural blueprint of the entire business process.

Does Replay generate production-ready code or just prototypes?#

Replay generates high-fidelity, documented React code and a structured Design System. While every enterprise has specific architectural standards that may require minor manual adjustments, Replay provides about 80% of the heavy lifting. This takes the development time from the industry average of 40 hours per screen down to just 4 hours, significantly accelerating the path to production.

How many users need to record a workflow for it to be accurately mapped?#

Typically, recording 3-5 users performing the same task is sufficient for identifying shadow workflows using Replay’s AI. This allows the system to identify common patterns, outliers, and various "branches" of a workflow (e.g., how a user handles an error message vs. a successful entry). The AI then synthesizes these recordings into a single "Golden Path" documentation.

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The Path Forward: From Discovery to Modernization#

The era of the 24-month "Big Bang" rewrite is over. The risks are too high, and the costs are too great. By identifying shadow workflows using visual discovery, you can break your 300+ undocumented processes into manageable, automated sprints.

You can move from a state of "Technical Debt" to "Technical Wealth" by leveraging the knowledge already present in your organization—hidden in the screens your employees use every day.

Ready to modernize without rewriting? Book a pilot with Replay and see how visual discovery can map your enterprise in weeks, not years.