De-risking a legacy system modernization
Summary
The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division relied on a legacy system called WHISARD to support labor law enforcement. The system needed to be modernized, but its age, complexity, and lack of documentation created major delivery risk. We built a technical spike that proved a web-based modernization approach could work by reusing existing business rules and stored procedures through an API layer. That prototype gave DOL a practical basis for planning the broader rewrite with far less uncertainty.
The challenge
WHISARD was an aging, desktop-based system with little usable documentation and deeply embedded business logic. Modernizing it required more than replacing the interface — it meant understanding whether the underlying system could realistically support a safer, incremental transition.
The risks were significant. To build a meaningful prototype, we had to recreate a valid working environment around legacy DB2 infrastructure and stored procedures. At the same time, because the underlying data was sensitive and potentially tied to litigation, we could not use production records and had to work entirely with artificial data.
DOL needed a way to test modernization assumptions early, before committing to a larger rewrite effort.
The solution
We approached the problem as a risk-reduction exercise.
After recreating a working DB2 environment with artificial data, we conducted extensive analysis of the system’s stored procedures and business logic. We then built a lightweight Python-based web service layer that interfaced directly with the legacy database and exposed key functionality through APIs.
This made it possible to create a browser-based demonstration that showed how a modern web interface could operate while still relying on existing in-place business rules. Rather than speculating about feasibility, DOL could see a working example of how an API-encapsulation approach could bridge the legacy system and a future modernized experience.
The results
- Built a technical spike that demonstrated a viable path for modernizing WHISARD through API encapsulation
- Reduced modernization risk by validating key assumptions before a larger rewrite began
- Improved acquisition planning by giving DOL a clearer basis for scope, approach, and cost estimates
- Showed that legacy business rules and stored procedures could be reused in a modern web-based architecture