Reverse engineering and modernization
We take over your existing code to modernize it and prepare it for what comes next. Once the code is reliable and documented, we propose a modernization plan that helps you catch up.
Documented code · debt identified · costed modernization
- Format
- Four steps, from extracting the repositories to delivering the plan
- Who is involved
- Your IT teams and the people who still know the application
- What you leave with
- Documented code, the technical debt identified and a staged modernization plan
- What comes next
- Engineering practices, or the AI dev team
Who needs code reverse engineering
This offering is for organizations that depend on an application they no longer fully understand: the code runs, but nobody can explain it or change it without worry.
- The people who wrote the critical application have left, and their knowledge was never written down.
- Documentation is missing or out of date, and every change means rereading code to understand its effect.
- A technology in the application is reaching end of support, and you must choose between migrating, replacing or keeping it.
- Requested changes take longer and longer to deliver, because each one touches areas nobody understands well.
From repository to modernization plan, in four steps
- Extraction: secure ingestion of the repositories, dependencies and existing documentation.
- Reverse engineering: the business logic is reconstructed by a pair of models, one that executes and one that validates.
- Review: multi-layer validation, automated tests and a security analysis of the code (SAST), then review by an experienced person at each milestone.
- Delivery: documented code and a modernization plan.
Reverse engineering assisted by AI, validated by people
AI reads quickly. It goes through the repositories, the dependencies and the existing documents, then proposes a description of the business logic the code applies. That output is a draft, not a verdict. Every conclusion is therefore checked: first by a second model that cross-checks it, then by automated tests and a security analysis of the code, and finally by an experienced person who validates or corrects at each milestone.
The modernization plan follows from what was understood about the code: the fragile areas, the debt identified, the technologies approaching end of support and the parts worth keeping. It proceeds in stages, each deliverable and verifiable, rather than through a rewrite of the whole thing in one block, where you learn the result only at the end. The documentation we produce is meant to live alongside the code.
What you get
Documented code
The business logic reconstructed, with dependencies and modules described in living documentation that a person has reviewed and that your teams can take over and keep up to date.
Technical debt identified
Fragile areas, components at end of support and risky dependencies are located, with the tests and the security analysis that back each finding.
A staged modernization plan
A sequence of ordered stages, each with its estimated effort and what it allows you to deliver, so you catch up on delivery without rewriting everything at once.
After reverse engineering, evolving the code
Documented code and a modernization plan change how the application can evolve. AI engineering practices set the usage rules for code assistants and the checkpoints of your development lifecycle. If you would rather hand part of the changes to a team that delivers under human validation, the AI dev team can take on the stages of the plan.
Frequently asked questions
What is software reverse engineering?
It is the reconstruction of how an application works from its code, when the specifications and documentation have disappeared or no longer match what is running. Here, AI helps read and describe the code, and a person validates every conclusion before it goes into the documentation.
Can we rely on documentation produced with AI?
Not without checks, which is why review is a step in its own right. A second model cross-checks the conclusions of the first, automated tests and a security analysis verify them, and an experienced person validates at each milestone. No conclusion goes into the documentation without a person having validated it.
Do we have to rewrite the application to modernize it?
Not necessarily. The modernization plan sorts each part of the application: keep, migrate or replace. A complete rewrite is only one outcome among others, chosen only if the analysis of the code justifies it.
Does our code leave the organization during the analysis?
That is decided before extraction. Models can run in your infrastructure or be hosted in Québec, and the ingestion of repositories is secured in both cases. Sovereignty is an option based on your needs, with Québec as the default and France if your activity requires it.