Insurance · North America · Pega Constellation
Migrating a 12-Application Pega Estate to Constellation Without Stopping the Business
Overview
A leading North American insurance group operating across personal lines, commercial lines, and specialty insurance had built a substantial Pega estate over eight years - 12 live applications covering underwriting, claims, customer service, and policy administration, used daily by over 200 staff across four business units.
With Pega's strategic direction firmly behind Constellation and the organization's existing UI framework approaching end of support, the group's CTO made the decision to migrate the entire estate to Constellation. The challenge was doing it without disrupting live operations, without losing eight years of accumulated UI customization, and without the business units having to absorb a completely new user experience overnight.
Codeless IQ was engaged to lead the migration architecture, delivery governance, and hands-on implementation across all 12 applications.
The Challenge
The scale of the migration presented three distinct challenges that had to be solved simultaneously.
First, the technical complexity. The existing applications had been built by multiple teams over eight years using different UI conventions, custom Section and Harness configurations, and varying degrees of adherence to Pega's architectural standards. There was no single migration path - each application needed individual assessment and a tailored approach.
Second, the business continuity requirement. The 200+ users across the four business units could not absorb a big-bang cutover. Underwriting teams, claims handlers, and customer service agents needed to keep working throughout the migration. Any disruption to live operations carried direct financial and regulatory risk.
Third, the knowledge transfer imperative. The group's internal Pega team of eight developers had limited Constellation experience. The migration had to build their capability as it progressed - not just deliver the technical outcome, but leave the team equipped to own and evolve the Constellation estate independently after Codeless IQ's engagement ended.
Our Solution
Codeless IQ designed and executed a structured three-phase migration programme spanning 14 months, built around a dedicated Constellation architecture framework we developed specifically for the group's estate.
In Phase 1 we conducted a full technical assessment of all 12 applications, produced a detailed Constellation readiness report for each, and designed the migration sequencing - prioritising applications by complexity, business criticality, and the learning value each would provide to the internal team. We also ran a two-day Constellation Architecture Workshop for the internal development team to establish shared foundations before the first line of migration work began.
In Phase 2 we migrated the first six applications - the lower complexity ones chosen deliberately to build team confidence and establish repeatable patterns. Every migration followed the same structured process: component inventory, DX API mapping, component rebuild in Constellation, parallel testing, and staged cutover with full rollback capability. The internal team paired with our developers throughout, with explicit knowledge transfer objectives built into every sprint.
In Phase 3 we migrated the remaining six applications including the highest complexity ones - the claims and underwriting platforms with the deepest UI customization. By this stage the internal team was contributing significantly to the delivery, and two of the six migrations in this phase were led entirely by internal developers with Codeless IQ in an architectural assurance role.
Throughout the programme we maintained a Constellation Standards Library - a living document of component patterns, governance decisions, and architectural conventions that became the foundation for the group's ongoing Pega development standards.
Technologies Used
The Results
Measurable, Lasting Impact
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All 12 applications successfully migrated to Constellation over 14 months
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Zero unplanned business disruption across all four business units during migration
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Internal team of 8 developers fully Constellation-capable by programme end
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3 of the final 6 migrations led independently by the internal team
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Constellation Standards Library established as the group's permanent development framework
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Average page load performance improved by 41% across the migrated estate
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Accessibility compliance achieved to WCAG 2.1 AA standard across all applications
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Version upgrade from 8.6 to 23.1 completed in parallel - 2 major versions in one programme
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External consultant dependency reduced by 80% within 6 months of programme completion
The scale of what we asked Codeless IQ to do was significant - 12 applications, live operations, a team that needed upskilling, and a version upgrade running in parallel. They made it look manageable. More importantly, they left us with a team and a set of standards that mean we can keep going from here without them.
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