The Challenge
Our client, a financial services company, needed to modernize their systems. Their goals included customizing their user experiences with Pega, streamlining operations, and improving speed and efficiency, all while maintaining strict privacy and security standards.
However, their current applications were built on the soon-to-be-unsupported Pega 7.4 and needed an upgrade. The challenge was significant, considering the outdated elements found in their system, and the advancements introduced in the nine major releases since Pega 7.4. We ran a comprehensive four-week assessment of their applications.
The Assessment

Findings
The assessment shed light on several outdated elements:
1. OUTDATED RULES
The company's system had outdated rules and practices, focused on about 860 rules that needed updates. This included Rules Overrides, ActiveX components, missing Access Roles, and Custom Objects.
2. GUARDRAILS AND PATTERNS
Certain established guardrails and patterns had grown obsolete, leading them to rely on frameworks that are now considered “anti-patterns.”
3. PEGA CHAT AND PEGA CALL
The applications required re-implementation because of major updates since version 7.4. (Your framework may differ depending on the industry applications your Pega applications may use.)
4. WEB DEPLOYMENTS
From Pega 8.8 onward, only containerized deployments were supported. They needed to establish in-house cloud infrastructure or migrate to Pega Cloud.
5. SMART DISPUTE
The framework went through significant changes, including performance upgrades, and fixing more than 180 issues in the last three releases. (Your framework may differ depending on the industry applications your Pega applications may use.)

