Client Context
An insurer modernizing a legacy policy platform relied on mainframe services, policy database, cloud APIs, event queues, and web applications to support quote, issue, endorsement, renewal, and cancellation. The operating model handled complex products and long-lived policies across the United States, using policy, coverage, premium, billing, and historical data. Legacy dependencies and historical policy behavior were poorly documented. Product changes could not be paused during modernization.
Challenges
- Legacy dependencies and historical policy behavior were poorly documented.
- Product changes could not be paused during modernization.
- The legacy mainframe services, policy database, cloud APIs, event queues, and web applications architecture slowed changes to quote, issue, endorsement, renewal, and cancellation and created tightly coupled release risk.
- Limited automated coverage made it difficult to compare legacy and modernized behavior.
- Database, API, and session dependencies created hidden failure points during incremental refactoring.
Solutions Implemented
- Built characterization tests and data baselines before extracting services.
- Validated event flows, API contracts, historical calculations, and phased cutover behavior.
- Mapped critical dependencies and established behavior, data, and performance baselines before refactoring.
- Created contract, component, API, and end-to-end tests for modernized quote, issue, endorsement, renewal, and cancellation.
- Validated container, microservice, gateway, and database changes through automated pipeline gates.
- Executed parallel runs, traffic simulation, observability checks, and phased cutover validation.
Value Delivered
- Reduced the primary testing or operational effort by approximately [45%], subject to validation against approved engagement data.
- Reduced functional drift during modernization.
- Reduced regression risk during incremental modernization.
- Created automation assets aligned to the new cloud-native operating model.
Impact Highlights
- Achieved an estimated [30%] improvement in cycle time, coverage, or processing consistency; replace with the approved client metric.
- Reduced relevant defects, failures, or rework by an illustrative [20%]; confirm before publication.
- Enabled incremental service delivery without destabilizing policy operations.
- Enabled evidence-based retirement of legacy components.
