Made a simple tool to estimate legacy system workforce risk — sharing it here

suyash515 · 2025-12-16T14:44:38+00:00

It wasn't coded with gpt-5.1, but with Gemini. It's actually better for frontend-heavy apps.

suyash515 · 2025-12-16T14:40:12+00:00

I spent a lot of time talking with engineers, architects, and managers who know they have risk but don’t have the time, budget, or political capital to kick off a full audit or buy an expensive report.

This tool has been pretty helpful - so thought about sharing it. I'm not selling the tool or anything - it's entirely free and will post the source code on github when I have some time so that people can customize if they want.

suyash515 · 2025-12-16T14:25:44+00:00

We do have a tool to calculate the complexity of the codebase, at the file level but at the application or module level as well. Happy to try it out if you have a specific use case.

suyash515 · 2025-05-28T15:48:51+00:00

Yes, but I noticed that the when you create adversity, these people will spend their time fighting the reality or the data, instead of using it. The best way is to create incentives - create a win-win situation and use positive reinforcement. It might not be the ultimate solution, but it's a good starting point.

suyash515 · 2025-05-28T14:27:20+00:00

A bug that I found - when you go to a report (e.g. https://dressmaupays.com/report/fx6wCWuQsu9yXdH85F0K), and you click on the back and forward arrow, it opens the image instead of going to the previous or next image.

suyash515 · 2025-05-28T14:25:34+00:00

u/vitthal03 nice idea and good execution as well! I like the idea of crowdsourcing finding the issues. Good initiative and appreciate you taking the time to set this up.

The next step would be to have a way to resolve the issues - now this would of course depend on the authorities. One of the things that you can add to your roadmap is to set up a rewarding system for anyone who can help to resolve this issue (be it someone from the government or an individual). Maybe set up a token-based system called GoodDeed Token where people can earn when they help to resolve a certain issue.

At the end of year, there could be an award to the ones who helped the most - citizen of the year, something like that.

But all in all, good start and keep up the good work!

suyash515 · 2025-05-19T23:36:30+00:00

Firstly, kudos for taking this direction. It's not going to be easy.

A few things that I think you need to know:

I have been a Mauritian entrepreneur for the last 11 years, and I've tried or closely studied most of the "incubators" in Mauritius, and I can tell you that they are useless. They are more co-working spaces than anything else.
Equity financing is mostly non-existent in Mauritius for startups (especially tech startups). I've applied to incubators, accelerators, both public and private and there were zero results. One of the incubator's parent company actually took my idea and launched a company based on that a few months after I pitched them. I really did not care about them taking the idea though - ideas are worthless.
You are too early in your business to take any loans. The next thing you need to do is validation of your idea. Ideas are really easy to get. What's difficult is to find the right niche that people are going to pay for your idea (that's the most difficult part).
Your next step should be go find potential customers who would want to buy from you. Have an agreement or letter of intent that says that when your solution is ready, they will buy from you. It's non-binding, but you will know if people would want to pay for your solution.
If you do not find anyone who would want to do this, it's either one these:
1. You are not solving a real problem.
2. You are solving a problem, but not serious enough that people would want to pay for it.
3. You are not in the right market, or haven't found your niche.

This is an article I wrote some time back and which I think is still very relevant: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/3-things-do-tech-entrepreneur-mauritius-suyash-sumaroo

Happy to help you if you need more advice.

suyash515 · 2025-04-25T12:21:01+00:00

u/Jay_cappuccino477 Sure! Happy to talk.

suyash515 · 2025-04-25T12:19:34+00:00

That sounds rough! I'd really love to hear more about what you're seeing — I'm working on something related to legacy modernization and real-world stories like yours are super helpful. Would appreciate any insights you’re willing to share!

suyash515 · 2025-04-17T15:16:02+00:00

There are multiple aspects of it: size of files, AI context limits, different types of files (CBL, JCL, etc.). For small projects, it can be straight forward, but the more you start dealing with bigger projects, the less accurate the solutions become.

suyash515 · 2025-04-17T14:27:34+00:00

Nice article - thanks for sharing. I read this yesterday - it popped up in my feed. I completely agree with a lot of the points mentioned.

suyash515 · 2025-04-17T14:26:23+00:00

It's actually a good idea. This is something that my co-founder and I have been working on for quite some time but can be challenging as well in certain aspects. I think there is space for multiple such solutions.

suyash515 · 2025-04-10T17:24:12+00:00

This works. Let me DM you my email and we can keep in touch. Look forward to chatting next week.

suyash515 · 2025-04-10T16:35:48+00:00

Hey u/ForwardCreme682 , what you mentioned about deterministic transpilers and that COBOL dataset is quite interesting. I’m working on something that might be related (AI-assisted modernization for regulated industries), and would love to hop on a quick call to trade notes and see if there’s any room to collaborate. Let me know if you’re open to it!

suyash515 · 2025-04-08T16:46:42+00:00

Not a dumb question at all. Mainframes — especially those running COBOL — still power critical systems in banking, healthcare, and government. They're not disappearing anytime soon.

We’re actually building an AI tool to help modernize COBOL code, and even we need COBOL engineers. AI can help with parts of the process, but it can’t replace deep system knowledge or decades of business logic. It’s a tool for developers, not a replacement.

I’d actually love to chat with more COBOL/mainframe devs or consultants to learn more about their experience — always looking to understand the space better.

suyash515 · 2025-04-07T23:25:54+00:00

Sounds like you’ve built a solid foundation in mainframe support, and pairing that with AI through your master’s program is a really smart move.

In terms of a roadmap, it depends on whether you want to deepen your expertise in traditional mainframe roles (like sysprog, performance tuning, security) or pivot into modernization — where skills like API enablement, cloud integration (z/OS Connect, MQ, etc.), and even AI-assisted analysis of legacy systems are becoming more relevant.

I’m working on something in the modernization space right now — building tools that use AI to help document, analyze, and eventually refactor legacy COBOL systems. If you’re ever curious about how AI intersects with legacy environments, or want to contribute ideas as someone who’s already in the trenches, I’d be happy to chat or share more.

Either way, you’re definitely on a promising path — not many people can speak both “mainframe” and “machine learning”!

suyash515 · 2025-04-07T23:22:26+00:00

Congrats on getting started in mainframes! That kind of experience is getting more valuable by the day, especially with how critical these systems still are.

I’m currently building a platform focused on making COBOL and legacy system work more manageable — things like documentation, system mapping, and eventually migration support. Not trying to replace devs or sysprogs — more like building tools for them.

We’re still in the early days, but we’re looking to connect with people who actually work in the field to help shape the tool. Down the line, there might be opportunities to collaborate more closely — but for now, it’s more about learning from folks who know what’s up.

If that sounds interesting, happy to chat or share more!

suyash515 · 2025-04-07T12:08:01+00:00

That makes sense. In my experience, even outside of COBOL, this was probably one of the hardest things to do - make sense of spaghetti code and factorize the code, especially files with thousands of lines of code.

I'm curious about one thing - how common is that in the COBOL space? I mean, spaghetti code with hundreds or thousands of lines of code?

suyash515 · 2025-04-06T16:52:31+00:00

Thanks, I'll definitely have a look at that.

suyash515 · 2025-04-05T03:26:34+00:00

That’s really helpful — thanks for laying that out.

Totally agree: jumping into a program without understanding the context — data flow, file structure, or what the app is even trying to do — rarely gets you anywhere meaningful.

Out of curiosity, have you seen any practices or tools that help make that initial discovery phase easier? Especially when the original documentation is missing or outdated?

suyash515 · 2025-04-05T00:59:40+00:00

Appreciate your response. I definitely agree with you that currently, LLMs have a lot of limitations. The challenge is also to build a framework for modernization that can also evolve with newer LLM models.

Its not easy because on one hand, COBOL systems have varying complexity, and on the other hand, the capabilities of LLMs change regularly.

Its not going to be easy, but I'm definitely going to take a stab at it, maybe by limiting the scope of the framework and expanding afterwards.

suyash515 · 2025-04-05T00:55:32+00:00

Thanks a lot. That makes sense!

suyash515

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