IUA Business Solutions: Legacy Insurance Platform Modernisation

Project Overview

In the insurance domain, many platforms evolve over years and accumulate technical debt as business needs change. Our engagement began with legacy systems - older frameworks, tightly coupled codebases, and inconsistent deployment practices - that limited delivery speed and team effectiveness.

Our focus was to stabilise, modernise, and continuously deliver. We worked collaboratively with the team to introduce clear architectural patterns, incrementally eliminate technical debt, and upgrade systems to modern .NET versions, complemented by Vue-powered front-end solutions. Alongside delivery, we embedded strong engineering practices - TDD, CI/CD pipelines, and shared ownership - while upskilling the team and ensuring the platform remained supported and reliable in production.

The Challenge

The delivery environment presented several common enterprise insurance challenges:

• Legacy systems: Older .NET frameworks and tightly coupled architectures slowing change.
• Accumulated technical debt: Making enhancements risky and time-consuming.
• Inconsistent delivery practices: Manual or fragile deployments causing uncertainty.
• Knowledge silos: Critical system knowledge held by a few individuals.
• Ongoing production pressure: Enhancements needed while supporting live insurance systems.
• Regulated domain constraints: Accuracy, auditability, and data integrity could not be compromised.

Our Solution

We implemented a modernisation-first delivery approach that balanced progress with stability while ensuring compliance and quality. Building and upskilling the team on modern development practices and tools. Sticking to a consistent delivery rhythm and process.

Architecture & Modernisation

• Clear architectural patterns: Introduced to decouple concerns and enable incremental upgrades.
• Vue.js Components: For maintainable, scalable UI development.
• Reduced technical debt iteratively: Refactor, improve, release - without large rewrites.
• Weekly learning sessions: Upskilling the team on modern development practices and tools.
• Agile Development: Sprint-based delivery with clear backlog refinement and definition of done.

Engineering & Quality

• Test-Driven Development (TDD): Embedded to improve confidence and long-term maintainability.
• Coding Standards: Established and enforced coding standards to ensure consistency and readability.
• System Architecture: Designed system architecture for clarity, testability, and long-term evolution.
• User Acceptance Training: Comprehensive training to ensure users comfort with the new additions.
• Release Management: Controlled release processes with rollback capabilities and deployment gates.

Delivery & Collaboration

• Pair Programming: Collaborative programming sessions to share knowledge and improve code quality.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Strong collaboration with stakeholders throughout the development lifecycle.
• Team Code Reviews: Ensuring code quality and consistency across the team.
• Time Management: Effective time management practices to ensure timely delivery and team productivity.

Technical Excellence

Our implementation followed proven enterprise and insurance-aligned best practices:

• Clean Architecture: Layered design, clear responsibilities, and reduced coupling.
• Modern Vue Components: Component-based UI with consistent styling and structure.
• MVC API Discipline: Predictable endpoints, validation, and version-aware design.
• Test-Driven Development: Unit and integration tests as part of normal delivery.
• CI/CD Automation: Azure Pipelines enforcing quality gates and deployment consistency.
• Operational Support: Ongoing support and maintenance to ensure system reliability and performance.

Development & Support Approach

We delivered while strengthening the team and maintaining system stability:

• End-to-End Ownership: From legacy analysis and architecture through delivery and support.
• Agile Delivery: Iterative progress with frequent demos and stakeholder feedback.
• Upskilling Through Delivery: Learning embedded into sprint work, not separated.
• Knowledge Sharing: Documentation, runbooks, and architectural decision records.
• Ongoing Support: Active support of live insurance systems alongside new development.

Results & Impact

A structured, end-to-end delivery process was implemented to progressively enhance technical capability while enabling tangible business outcomes: