Visual Reverse Engineering for Compliance: Documenting Workflows for GDPR Audits

The average enterprise spends $5.2 million annually on compliance-related activities, yet 67% of legacy systems lack the documentation required to pass a basic GDPR audit. When a regulator asks for a data flow map of a 15-year-old insurance portal or a legacy banking terminal, "I don't know" is a $20 million liability.

TL;DR: Visual Reverse Engineering automates the documentation of legacy workflows by capturing real user sessions and converting them into modern React components and API contracts, reducing compliance audit preparation time by 70%.

The Compliance Archaeology Problem#

Most legacy systems are "black boxes." The original architects are gone, the documentation hasn't been updated since 2012, and the source code is a labyrinth of undocumented side effects. For industries like Financial Services and Healthcare, this isn't just technical debt—it's a massive regulatory risk.

Under GDPR, companies must provide clear documentation on how PII (Personally Identifiable Information) is processed, stored, and transmitted. Traditional "archaeology"—hiring expensive consultants to manually trace code through thousands of files—takes an average of 40 hours per screen. With the global technical debt hit reaching $3.6 trillion, the manual approach is no longer sustainable.

Why Legacy Rewrites Fail Compliance#

70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their timelines because the business logic is buried in the UI layer. When you attempt a "Big Bang" rewrite to meet compliance standards, you invariably miss the edge cases that were never documented. You end up building a compliant system that doesn't actually work for the business.

Visual Reverse Engineering changes the paradigm. Instead of guessing what the code does, you record what the system actually does.

Comparing Modernization & Documentation Strategies#

💰 ROI Insight: Manual screen documentation costs roughly $4,000 per screen (based on $100/hr architect rates). Replay reduces this to approximately $400 per screen by automating the extraction of components and logic.

How Visual Reverse Engineering Works for Compliance#

Visual Reverse Engineering isn't just screen recording. It is the process of capturing the state, network calls, and DOM structures of a legacy application and transpiling them into modern, documented assets. Replay enables this by acting as a bridge between the "black box" and the modern stack.

Step 1: Workflow Recording#

An expert user or QA engineer performs a standard business process (e.g., "Onboard New Patient" or "Process Insurance Claim"). Replay records the session, but more importantly, it captures the underlying data structures and API interactions.

Step 2: Component Extraction#

The platform analyzes the recording and generates modular React components. This isn't "spaghetti code" output; it's structured, typed, and clean.

typescript
// Example: Extracted PII-Handling Component from a Legacy Java App
// Generated by Replay Visual Reverse Engineering

import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
import { TextField, Button, Alert } from '@ds/enterprise-ui';

interface PatientOnboardingProps {
  initialData?: any;
  onValidationComplete: (data: any) => void;
}

/**
 * @audit GDPR-Sensitive: Handles PII (SSN, DOB)
 * @legacy_source: /web/forms/v2/patient_intake.jsp
 */
export function PatientOnboardingForm({ onValidationComplete }: PatientOnboardingProps) {
  const [formData, setFormData] = useState({
    ssn: '',
    fullName: '',
    dateOfBirth: ''
  });

  // Business logic preserved from legacy session capture
  const validateSSN = (ssn: string) => {
    const regex = /^\d{3}-\d{2}-\d{4}$/;
    return regex.test(ssn);
  };

  const handleSubmit = async () => {
    if (validateSSN(formData.ssn)) {
      // Replay identified this endpoint from network trace
      const response = await fetch('/api/v1/compliance/encrypt-and-save', {
        method: 'POST',
        body: JSON.stringify(formData)
      });
      onValidationComplete(await response.json());
    }
  };

  return (
    <div className="compliance-wrapper">
      <TextField 
        label="Full Name" 
        onChange={(e) => setFormData({...formData, fullName: e.target.value})} 
      />
      <TextField 
        label="SSN (Encrypted at Rest)" 
        type="password"
        onChange={(e) => setFormData({...formData, ssn: e.target.value})} 
      />
      <Button onClick={handleSubmit}>Secure Submit</Button>
    </div>
  );
}

Step 3: API Contract Generation#

One of the biggest hurdles in GDPR compliance is identifying where data goes once it leaves the UI. Replay automatically generates OpenAPI/Swagger specifications from the recorded network traffic.

yaml
# Generated API Contract for Compliance Audit
openapi: 3.0.0
info:
  title: Legacy Claims API
  version: 1.0.0
paths:
  /claims/process:
    post:
      summary: Process Insurance Claim
      description: Extracted from legacy workflow "Claim Submission"
      requestBody:
        content:
          application/json:
            schema:
              type: object
              properties:
                claimant_id: { type: string }
                pii_data: { type: string, description: "Contains SSN/DOB" }
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Success

⚠️ Warning: Most legacy systems use undocumented internal APIs. Failing to document these "shadow APIs" is a common cause of GDPR non-compliance during technical audits.

Solving the "Right to Erasure" (Article 17)#

Under GDPR Article 17, individuals have the right to be forgotten. If you don't know every screen and every database field where a user's data is displayed or edited, you cannot guarantee erasure.

By using Replay, Enterprise Architects can build a comprehensive Library of every UI component in their ecosystem.

1. •Inventory: Use the Replay Library to see every screen that handles user data.
2. •Traceability: Use the Flows feature to see the sequence of screens a user navigates.
3. •Audit Trail: Generate a technical debt audit that highlights exactly which screens are using deprecated, non-secure protocols (e.g., sending PII over unencrypted GET requests).

The "Documentation without Archaeology" Workflow#

1. •Capture: Record the "forgotten" workflows that only the back-office staff use.
2. •Audit: Use Replay’s AI Automation Suite to flag fields that look like PII (names, emails, credit card patterns).
3. •Modernize: Instead of a 2-year rewrite, move compliant components into your new React-based Design System in days.
4. •Validate: Generate E2E tests automatically to ensure the new system's business logic matches the legacy system's logic 1:1.

💡 Pro Tip: Focus your Visual Reverse Engineering efforts on the "High-Risk" workflows first—specifically those involving data entry, user profiles, and financial transactions.

From Black Box to Documented Codebase#

The future of enterprise architecture isn't writing more code; it's understanding the code you already have. The "Big Bang" rewrite is a relic of the 2010s. Modern CTOs are moving toward a "continuous modernization" model where Visual Reverse Engineering provides the blueprint.

Replay allows you to move from a state of "Compliance Anxiety" to "Compliance Readiness" by providing:

• •Visual Source of Truth: A video record of how the system works.
• •Automated Documentation: No more stale Wiki pages.
• •Technical Debt Audits: Clear visibility into what needs to be fixed.

Frequently Asked Questions#

How long does legacy extraction take?#

While manual documentation takes 40+ hours per screen, Replay reduces this to approximately 4 hours. A complex workflow with 10–15 screens can be fully documented and extracted into React components in less than two weeks.

What about business logic preservation?#

This is the core strength of Visual Reverse Engineering. Because Replay captures the actual state changes and data transformations during a live session, the generated code preserves the specific business rules, validation logic, and edge cases that are often lost in manual rewrites.

Is Replay safe for regulated environments?#

Yes. Replay is built for SOC2 and HIPAA-ready environments. We offer On-Premise deployment options for organizations in Government, Financial Services, and Healthcare where data cannot leave the internal network.

Does this replace my developers?#

No. It empowers them. Instead of spending 6 months doing "discovery" and "archaeology," your senior engineers can focus on building new features. Replay handles the tedious task of understanding and documenting the legacy mess.

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