Public Sector Legacy Reform: How to Modernize Government Portals on a Budget

The average enterprise rewrite takes 18 months, but in the public sector, that timeline often stretches to three years before the project is quietly cancelled or de-scoped into oblivion. For government agencies, the "Big Bang" rewrite isn't just a technical risk—it’s a political and budgetary liability. With a global technical debt mountain reaching $3.6 trillion, the public sector can no longer afford to spend millions on "discovery phases" that result in nothing more than outdated PDF documentation.

The reality is stark: 70% of legacy rewrites fail or significantly exceed their timelines. In the public sector, where 67% of systems lack any meaningful documentation, the primary hurdle isn't writing new code—it's performing "technical archaeology" on the old code. We are asking developers to be historians instead of engineers.

TL;DR: Public sector legacy modernization fails because of documentation gaps; Replay solves this by using visual reverse engineering to transform recorded user workflows into production-ready React components and API contracts in days, not years.

The High Cost of Technical Archaeology#

When a government agency decides to modernize a 20-year-old unemployment insurance portal or a tax filing system, they usually start with a "Discovery" phase. This involves hiring expensive consultants to sit with subject matter experts (SMEs), watch them use the legacy system, and attempt to write down the business logic.

This manual process is the primary driver of the $3.6 trillion technical debt crisis. It takes an average of 40 hours of manual labor to document and recreate a single complex legacy screen. When you multiply that by hundreds of screens in a government portal, you’ve spent your entire budget before a single line of modern code is written.

The Modernization Matrix: Risk vs. Reality#

Why "Public Sector Legacy" is Different#

Public sector legacy systems aren't just old; they are regulated, brittle, and often undocumented. The original developers retired a decade ago, and the source code—if it even exists in a readable format—is a "black box."

1. •Documentation Gaps: 67% of legacy systems have no living documentation. The "source of truth" exists only in the muscle memory of the civil servants using the system.
2. •Compliance Constraints: Systems must adhere to SOC2, HIPAA, or specific government security frameworks. You cannot simply "move to the cloud" without a deep understanding of how data flows through the legacy pipes.
3. •Budgetary Rigidity: Government budgets are often "use it or lose it." A 24-month project is hard to justify when the political landscape changes every four years.

From Black Box to Documented Codebase: The Replay Methodology#

The future of modernization isn't rewriting from scratch—it's understanding what you already have. Replay introduces a paradigm shift: Visual Reverse Engineering. Instead of reading 50,000 lines of legacy Java or COBOL, we record the user performing the task.

Replay captures the DOM state, the network calls, and the business logic triggers. It then uses AI-driven automation to generate modern React components and API contracts. This reduces the time per screen from 40 hours to just 4 hours.

💰 ROI Insight: By automating the extraction of UI and logic, agencies typically see a 70% average time saving, moving project delivery from years to weeks.

Step 1: Visual Capture and Recording#

The process begins by recording real user workflows. For a government portal, this might mean recording a case worker processing a benefit application. Replay doesn't just record a video; it records the "DNA" of the application.

Step 2: Component Extraction and Library Building#

Once the flow is recorded, Replay’s AI Automation Suite identifies recurring UI patterns. These are exported into the Replay Library, creating a standardized Design System for the agency. This ensures that the new portal isn't just a functional clone, but a modern, accessible (Section 508 compliant) interface.

Step 3: API Contract Generation#

One of the biggest points of failure in public sector legacy projects is the integration layer. Replay automatically generates API contracts based on the network traffic captured during the recording.

typescript
// Example: Generated API Contract from a Legacy Pension Portal Extraction
// Replay identified these fields from the legacy SOAP response and mapped them to a modern REST schema.

export interface PensionClaimSchema {
  claimId: string; // Extracted from hidden field 'HDN_CLM_ID'
  taxpayerId: string;
  status: 'PENDING' | 'APPROVED' | 'REJECTED';
  submissionDate: string;
  lineItems: Array<{
    code: string;
    amount: number;
    description: string;
  }>;
}

/**
 * @generated By Replay AI Automation Suite
 * Source: Legacy Pension Portal - Workflow: 'Submit_Claim_Final'
 */
export async function submitModernizedClaim(data: PensionClaimSchema) {
  const response = await fetch('/api/v1/claims', {
    method: 'POST',
    body: JSON.stringify(data),
    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' }
  });
  return response.json();
}

Step 4: Business Logic Preservation#

The "Blueprints" feature in Replay allows architects to see the logic flow. If a legacy form only enables the "Submit" button when three specific conditions are met, Replay identifies those conditions and generates the corresponding React logic.

tsx
// Example: Generated React component preserving legacy business logic
import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
import { Button, Alert } from '@/components/ui';

export function LegacyBenefitForm({ userType, yearsOfService }: { userType: string, yearsOfService: number }) {
  const [isEligible, setIsEligible] = useState(false);

  // Replay extracted this logic from the legacy 'validate_eligibility.js' 
  // which was buried in 4,000 lines of spaghetti code.
  useEffect(() => {
    const checkEligibility = () => {
      if (userType === 'VETERAN' && yearsOfService >= 2) return true;
      if (userType === 'CIVIL_SERVANT' && yearsOfService >= 5) return true;
      return false;
    };
    setIsEligible(checkEligibility());
  }, [userType, yearsOfService]);

  return (
    <div className="p-6 bg-white rounded-lg shadow">
      <h2 className="text-xl font-bold">Benefit Application</h2>
      {!isEligible && (
        <Alert variant="warning">You do not meet the minimum service requirements.</Alert>
      )}
      <Button disabled={!isEligible} className="mt-4">
        Proceed to Application
      </Button>
    </div>
  );
}

Addressing the "Regulated Environment" Problem#

Public sector organizations cannot use tools that send sensitive citizen data to a public cloud. Replay was built for these constraints.

• •On-Premise Availability: Replay can be deployed entirely within an agency’s private cloud or air-gapped environment.
• •SOC2 & HIPAA-Ready: Data privacy is baked into the extraction process.
• •Technical Debt Audit: Before you even start the migration, Replay provides a full audit of your technical debt, identifying which parts of the legacy system are "dead code" and which are critical.

⚠️ Warning: Attempting to modernize without a technical debt audit usually results in migrating 100% of your legacy problems into a new framework.

The Path Forward: A 30-Day Pilot#

Instead of a 6-month RFP process for a total system overhaul, we recommend a "Slice-and-Scale" approach.

1. •Identify a High-Value Flow: Choose a single, high-traffic workflow (e.g., "Reset Password" or "Submit Application").
2. •Record with Replay: Use the platform to document the flow in real-time.
3. •Generate the Blueprint: Export the React components and API contracts.
4. •Deploy the "Strangler": Put the new modern screen in front of the legacy backend.

This approach provides immediate value to citizens while reducing the risk of a total system failure. You are no longer guessing what the legacy system does; you are using video as the source of truth for reverse engineering.

Frequently Asked Questions#

How long does legacy extraction take with Replay?#

While a manual rewrite of a complex portal screen takes roughly 40 hours, Replay reduces this to 4 hours. Most agencies can modernize a complete user flow (5-10 screens) in less than two weeks.

What about business logic preservation?#

Replay doesn't just "scrape" the UI. It captures the underlying state changes and network interactions. Our AI Automation Suite then maps these behaviors to modern TypeScript/React logic, ensuring that complex government regulations embedded in the code are not lost during the transition.

Does Replay work with COBOL or mainframe backends?#

Yes. Because Replay performs visual reverse engineering at the presentation and network layers, it is agnostic to the backend language. Whether your data lives in a DB2 database on a mainframe or a modern PostgreSQL instance, Replay captures how the user interacts with that data.

Can we run this on-premise?#

Absolutely. We understand the security requirements of the public sector. Replay offers full on-premise deployment options to ensure no sensitive data ever leaves your controlled environment.

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