Bringing Best Practice SDLC to a Global Financial Services Institution

Author: Mradul Sachdeva

Posted on: 15 November, 2025

The Challenge

A leading global financial services institution, serving millions across retail and commercial banking, faced a mounting challenge: decades-old systems and escalating technical debt.

Over time, quick fixes and post-merger integrations had created a tangled web of outdated applications — from core banking and payment processing to customer information systems. Many dated back to the 1980s and 90s, built on architectures no longer designed for modern digital demands.

Knowledge of these systems was vanishing. Veteran engineers held the keys to complex “black-box” modules, and as they neared retirement, institutional knowledge walked out the door. The talent pool for legacy technologies was shrinking globally, posing continuity risks and heightening the danger of outages or data loss.

Mean while, the financial industry was transforming.

Customers demanded real-time, digital-first experiences— seamless mobile banking, personalized AI-driven insights, and instant transactions.
Fintech challengers were scaling faster with modern architectures.
New regulatory frameworks like open banking APIs and real-time payment mandates demanded greater agility.

The leadership realized modernization was no longer optional. The cost of delay now outweighed the cost of change.

Yet, modernizing fragile legacy systems felt risky. Even a small change in a monolith required a full redeployment, threatening downtime. Earlier transformation attempts had failed due to poor visibility and lack of documentation —

As the CIO put it: “We’re stuck in quicksand. Our legacy drag is so severe that new initiatives are on hold because we’re too busy fighting fires.”

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The Solution: NexGenTek’s SDLC Run Book

To confront the challenge head-on, the bank partnered with NexGenTek and adopted our AI-driven SDLC Run Book solution — a modernization accelerator designed to decode, document, and future-proof legacy environments without disrupting operations.

Step 1: Full-Scale System Audit

NexGenTek began with a secure, read-only audit of all source repositories — spanning Java, C#,COBOL, and mobile apps.

Our proprietary Run Book Engine parsed millions of lines of code, generating:

Up-to-date technical documentation
Architecture diagrams mapping inter-system dependencies
Database schema visualizations and business rule extractions
Searchable online GitBook libraries for engineers

This automated process reverse-engineered years of lost application knowledge — transforming opaque code into clear, structured insight. The entire process was completed in just three months, a fraction of the time manual audits typically take.

Step 2: Non-Intrusive, Zero-Downtime Analysis

The Run Book solution analyzed existing systems without modifying a single line of code, ensuring zero disruption to production. The AI simply “observed” and decoded, surfacing insights safely — illuminating hidden dependencies, redundancies, and potential risks.

Step 3: Human Knowledge Integration

Technology met experience. NexGenTek’s team conducted interviews and workshops with senior engineers and business analysts to capture undocumented insights. These were integrated into the Run Book documentation, creating a comprehensive living knowledge base.

Deliverables included:

Developer Playbooks
Training Guides and Onboarding Manuals
Process Runbooks for Operations Teams

The result was a dynamic, searchable knowledge portal that teams could use daily rather than shelve away.

Step 4: Creating the Modernization Roadmap

Armed with data-driven visibility, NexGenTek collaborated with the bank’s architects to design a phased modernization roadmap.

Key priorities included:

Decoupling the monolith into modular microservices using a strangler-pattern approach.
Cloud migration pilots for non-critical applications.
Elimination of redundant programs, saving immediate infrastructure costs.
Automation and CI/CD implementation to accelerate delivery cycles.Each step balanced agility with risk management — modernization executed with precision, not disruption.

The Results

The results were transformational. NexGenTek’s Run Book brought clarity, control, and confidence to a once-opaque technology landscape.

Key Outcomes

100% Legacy Systems Documented and Mapped
Every core banking, payment, and customer system was decoded and documented — all within three months.
40% Faster Development Time
Teams reported spending significantly less time deciphering legacy code, freeing engineers for innovation.
Accelerated Onboarding
New developers ramped up nearly 2× faster, supported by clear, structured documentation.
$3–4 Million Annual Cost Savings
Redundant components and licenses were safely retired, reducing maintenance overhead.
Improved Release Cadence
Quarterly releases moved to monthly, with emergency patches deployable within hours.
Reduced Risk Exposure
Key-man dependency was eliminated. Knowledge continuity is now institutionalized.

“It’s like turning on the lights in a room we’d stumbled through for years,” said the bank’s Head of IT. “Now, we know exactly how our systems work — and where to improve next.”

Client Perspective

" Working with NexGenTek has been nothing short of transformative. Their Run Book approach shined a light into systems we’d treated as black boxes for decades. Suddenly, our teams have full clarity and confidence. NexGenTek didn’t just deliver documentation — they helped us build a culture of knowledge-sharing and forward thinking. "
— Chief Technology Officer

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A New Era of Financial Technology Agility

With a complete SDLC Run Book and a pragmatic modernization roadmap, the institution has transitioned from reactive firefighting to strategic innovation.

NexGenTek’s partnership proved that even the most complex legacy environments can evolve — safely, intelligently, and with measurable business impact.