Views: 27
In many Swiss organizations, aging business applications eventually weigh down agility, performance, and security. Amid rising maintenance costs, the inability to introduce new features, and a drain of expertise, the need for a measured re-engineering becomes critical. Rather than opting for a lengthy, fully budgeted overhaul or a mere marginal refactoring, re-engineering offers a strategic compromise: preserving functional capital while modernizing the technical foundations and architecture. This article first outlines the warning signs you shouldn’t ignore, compares re-engineering and full rewrites, details the tangible benefits to expect, and proposes a roadmap of key steps to successfully execute this transition without compromising operational continuity.
Warning Signs Indicating the Need for Re-engineering
These indicators reveal that it’s time to act before the application becomes a bottleneck. Early diagnosis avoids hidden costs and critical outages.
Obsolete Technologies with No Support
In cases where a component vendor no longer provides updates or security patches, the software quickly becomes fragile. Known vulnerabilities remain unaddressed, exposing data and impacting regulatory compliance. Without official support, every intervention turns into a reverse-engineering project to find a workaround or patch.
This lack of maintenance triggers a snowball effect: outdated frameworks cause incompatibilities, frozen dependencies block the deployment of new modules, and teams spend more time stabilizing than innovating. This state of software obsolescence undermines the system’s resilience against attacks and evolving business requirements.
Over time, the pressure on the IT department intensifies, as it becomes difficult to support multiple technology generations without a clear, structured modernization plan.
Inability to Integrate New Modules and APIs into the Existing Software
A monolithic software or tightly coupled architecture prevents adding third-party features without a partial rewrite, limiting adaptability to business needs. Each extension attempt can trigger unforeseen side effects, requiring manual fixes and laborious testing.
This technical rigidity lengthens development cycles and increases time to production. Innovation initiatives are hindered, project teams must manage outdated, sometimes undocumented dependencies, and rebuild ill-suited bridges to make modern modules communicate with the legacy system.
Integration challenges limit collaboration with external partners or SaaS solutions, which can isolate the organization and slow down digital transformation.
Degraded Performance, Recurring Bugs, and Rising Costs
System slowness appears through longer response times, unexpected errors, and downtime spikes. These degradations affect user experience, team productivity, and can lead to critical service interruptions.
At the same time, the lack of complete documentation or automated testing turns every fix into a high-risk endeavor. Maintenance costs rise exponentially, and the skills needed to work on the obsolete stack are scarce in the Swiss market, further driving up recruitment expenses.
Example: A Swiss industrial manufacturing company was using an Access system with outdated macros. Monthly maintenance took up to five man-days, updates caused data inconsistencies, and developers skilled in this stack were nearly impossible to find, resulting in a 30% annual increase in support costs.
Re-engineering vs. Complete Software Rewrite
Re-engineering modernizes the technical building blocks while preserving proven business logic. Unlike a full rewrite, it reduces timelines and the risk of losing functionality.
Preserving Business Logic Without Starting from Scratch
Re-engineering focuses on rewriting or progressively updating the technical layers while leaving the user-validated functional architecture intact. This approach avoids recreating complex business rules that have been implemented and tested over the years.
Retaining the existing data model and workflows ensures continuity for operational teams. Users experience no major disruption in their daily routines, which eases adoption of new versions and minimizes productivity impacts.
Moreover, this strategy allows for the gradual documentation and overhaul of critical components, without bloated budgets from superfluous development.
Reducing Costs and Timelines
A targeted renovation often yields significant time savings compared to a full rewrite. By preserving the functional foundations, teams can plan transition sprints and quickly validate each modernized component.
This modular approach makes it easier to allocate resources in stages, allowing the budget to be spread over multiple fiscal years or project phases. It also ensures a gradual upskilling of internal teams on the adopted new technologies.
Example: A Swiss bank opted to re-engineer its Delphi-based credit management application. The team extracted and restructured the calculation modules while retaining the proven business logic. The technical migration took six months instead of two years, and users did not experience any disruption in case processing.
Operational Continuity and Risk Reduction
By dividing the project into successive phases, re-engineering makes cutovers reliable. Each transition is subject to dedicated tests, ensuring the stability of the overall system.
This incremental approach minimizes downtime and avoids the extended unsupported periods common in a full rewrite. Incidents are reduced since the functional base remains stable and any rollbacks are easier to manage.
Fallback plans, based on the coexistence of old and new versions, are easier to implement and do not disrupt business users’ production environments.
Edana: strategic digital partner in Switzerland
We support mid-sized and large enterprises in their digital transformation
Expected Benefits of Re-engineering
Well-executed re-engineering optimizes performance and security while reducing accumulated technical debt. It paves the way for adopting modern tools and a better user experience.
Enhanced Scalability and Security
A modernized architecture often relies on principles of modularity and independent services, making it easier to add capacity as needed. This scalability allows you to handle load spikes without overprovisioning the entire system.
Furthermore, updating to secure libraries and frameworks addresses historical vulnerabilities. Deploying automated tests and integrated security controls protects sensitive information and meets regulatory requirements.
A context-driven approach for each component ensures clear privilege governance and strengthens the organization’s cyber resilience.
Reducing Technical Debt and Improving Maintainability
By replacing ad-hoc overlays and removing superfluous modules, the software ecosystem becomes more transparent. New versions are lighter, well-documented, and natively support standard updates.
This reduction in complexity cuts support costs and speeds up incident response times. Unit and integration tests help validate every change, ensuring a healthier foundation for future development, free from technical debt.
Example: A Swiss logistics provider modernized its fleet tracking application. By migrating to a microservices architecture, it halved update times and eased the recruitment of JavaScript and .NET developers proficient in current standards.
Openness to Modern Tools (CI/CD, Cloud, Third-Party Integrations)
Clean, modular code naturally fits into DevOps pipelines. CI/CD processes automate builds, testing, and deployments, reducing manual errors and accelerating time-to-market.
Moving to the cloud, whether partially or fully, becomes a gradual process, allowing for experimentation with hybrid environments before a full cutover. Decoupled APIs simplify connections to external services, be they CRM, BI, or payment platforms.
Adopting these tools provides greater visibility into delivery lifecycles, enhances collaboration between IT departments and business units, and prepares the organization for emerging solutions like AI and IoT.
Typical Steps for a Successful Re-engineering
Rigorous preparation and an incremental approach are essential to transform existing software without risking business continuity. Each phase must be based on precise diagnostics and clear deliverables.
Technical and Functional Audit
The first step is to catalogue existing components, map dependencies, and assess current test coverage. This analysis reveals weak points and intervention priorities.
On the functional side, it’s equally essential to list the business processes supported by the application, verify discrepancies between documentation and actual use, and gauge user expectations.
A combined audit enables the creation of a quantified action plan, identification of quick wins, and the planning of migration phases to minimize the impact on daily operations.
Module Breakdown and Progressive Migration
After the assessment, the project is divided into logical modules or microservices, each targeting a specific functionality or business domain. This granularity facilitates the planning of isolated development and testing sprints.
Progressive migration involves deploying these modernized modules alongside the existing system. Gateways ensure communication between old and new segments, guaranteeing service continuity.
Testing, Documentation, and Training
Each revamped module must be accompanied by a suite of automated tests and detailed documentation, facilitating onboarding for support and development teams. Test scenarios cover critical paths and edge cases to ensure robustness.
At the same time, a training plan for users and IT teams is rolled out. Workshops, guides, and hands-on sessions ensure rapid adoption of new tools and methodologies.
Finally, post-deployment monitoring allows you to measure performance, leverage feedback, and adjust processes for subsequent phases, ensuring continuous improvement.
Turn Your Legacy into a Strategic Advantage
A reasoned re-engineering modernizes your application heritage without losing accumulated expertise, reduces technical debt, strengthens security, and improves operational agility. The audit, modular breakdown, and progressive testing phases ensure a controlled transition while paving the way for DevOps and cloud tools.
Performance, integration, and recruitment challenges need not hinder your digital strategy. At Edana, our experts, with a contextual and open-source approach, are ready to support all phases, from initial analysis to team training.
