HDI

Insurance company

HDI is the Corporate & Specialty division of the Talanx Group, a major European insurer. In 2024, Talanx achieved an insurance revenue of €48.1 billion and an operating profit of €4.9 billion, with HDI Global contributing €10.0 billion in revenue and €702 million in operating profit. This significant global revenue highlights Talanx’s strong international presence and growing importance in the insurance market, reflecting its diversification and ability to achieve substantial financial growth.

  • Contributed to the establishment of a new sustainability area within the software engineering department, focusing on long-term code maintainability and architectural health.
  • Spearheaded efforts to address challenges arising from a legacy codebase, proactively identifying areas for improvement and modernization.
  • Collaborated strategically with a third-party company to execute the migration of monolithic systems towards a microservices architecture, enhancing scalability and resilience.
  • Championed the development of highly cohesive code modules within the new microservices, promoting modularity and reducing interdependencies.
  • Developed and implemented software solutions for the company’s core layer system, ensuring robust and efficient foundational components.
  • Elevated code design quality through the consistent application of design patterns (e.g., Factory, Observer) to create more flexible and maintainable solutions.
  • Instituted and enforced design standards (including GOF, GRASP, and others) to foster code reuse, improve readability, and ensure architectural consistency across applications. This included strategically exposing legacy system features (layout, database, user management, etc.) in an accessible and user-friendly manner throughout the application landscape.
  • Led the implementation of new business rules for the legal system, translating user requirements into functional and well-integrated software features.
  • Managed the ongoing maintenance and adaptation of existing system resources to align with evolving business needs and effectively address critical bug fixes, ensuring system stability and reliability.

Improvements over many different areas

Having initially engaged with a small PHP system, my work evolved to encompass Progress ABL systems before ultimately transitioning to C#. This technical journey occurred alongside a significant restructuring of the software engineering area, where I actively contributed to the adoption of agile methodologies, the formation of squad-based teams, and the implementation of microservices and event-driven architectures. My responsibilities included the development of software solutions for the company’s layer system. I focused on enhancing code design through the application of design patterns, including GOF and GRASP, and adhering to design standards to maximize code reuse. A key aspect of my work involved making the existing system’s functionalities – such as layout, database, and user management – readily accessible and user-friendly across the application. Furthermore, I addressed the evolving needs of the legal system by implementing new business rules and ensuring the maintenance of existing system resources to accommodate these changes and resolve any defects.

Technologies:

Progress ABL / 4GL / WebSpeed
PHP / Laravel
C# / .NET / .NET Core
HTML / CSS / Bootstrap 
Javascript / Jquery / Kendo UI
Restful APIs / Microservices / Event driven design

ClientHDI
Date01 Mar 2018

Result Driven

Modernization of systems and code bases

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Situation:

At HDI, we faced significant challenges with our legacy systems built using Progress ABL. These systems lacked modern architectural principles: they didn’t adhere to GOF or GRASP design patterns, lacked proper separation of concerns, and had no microservices architecture. This resulted in a monolithic codebase that was increasingly difficult and costly to maintain, scale, and update, hindering our ability to respond to evolving business needs and impacting overall system performance.

Task:

I was tasked with developing a comprehensive strategy to modernize these Progress ABL systems. This involved collaborating with a third-party company to plan a migration to a microservices-based architecture, applying Domain-Driven Design (DDD) principles, and promoting the adoption of modern design patterns and development practices across multiple development teams. A key part of this was to improve code cohesion.

Action:

I took a leading role in:

  • Collaborating with a third-party company: I worked closely with them to assess the existing Progress ABL systems, identify key business domains, and design a target microservices architecture based on DDD.

  • Developing a migration strategy: I created a detailed plan for incrementally migrating the legacy systems to microservices, defining clear boundaries for each service, and outlining the technologies and tools to be used.

  • Driving adoption of modern practices: I championed the adoption of GOF/GRASP design patterns and separation of concerns principles across development teams. This involved conducting workshops, providing guidance, and reviewing code to ensure adherence to these standards.

  • Guiding multiple teams: I worked with various development teams, including the C# team, to implement the new architecture and best practices. I provided architectural guidance, ensured alignment with the overall strategy, and helped resolve technical challenges.

  • Championing Event-Driven Architecture: I promoted the use of event-driven architecture, particularly with the C# team, to improve communication and decoupling between services.

Result:

The modernization strategy delivered significant improvements:

  • Improved System Architecture: The C# team successfully adopted a microservices architecture with high code cohesion and an event-driven approach.

  • Increased Scalability and Performance: The modernized systems, particularly those serving over 10,000 customers a month, demonstrated significantly improved scalability and performance.

  • Enhanced Maintainability: The new architecture and coding practices resulted in systems that were easier to maintain, debug, and update, reducing development costs and time-to-market.

  • Successful Adoption: The success of the C# team served as a model for other teams, driving wider adoption of microservices and modern development practices across the organization.

Interface design problems

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Situation: During my tenure within the Lawyer Squad at HDI, a significant pain point emerged regarding the user experience. Many end-users expressed considerable dissatisfaction with the legal system’s outdated and clunky interface. They frequently compared it unfavorably to more modern applications, leading to frustration and potentially impacting their efficiency.

Task: Recognizing the need for improvement, I took the initiative to address this user dissatisfaction. The primary task was to modernize the legal system’s user interface to enhance usability and user satisfaction. This involved proposing a significant layout overhaul and securing the necessary approvals from HDI’s management.

Action: I proactively brought the user feedback and the need for a UI refresh to the attention of the Lawyer Area Coordinator. We collaborated to develop a proposal for a system-wide layout revamp. To ensure a professional and efficient outcome, I specifically suggested leveraging the Bootstrap framework, highlighting its capabilities for creating clean, responsive, and user-friendly interfaces. Crucially, I actively participated in developing the new interface using Bootstrap. This involved applying the framework’s components and principles to create a more intuitive and visually appealing design. The development was completed within a focused one-week timeframe.

Result: The implementation of the new Bootstrap-based interface was a resounding success. Within a short period, end-users expressed high levels of satisfaction with the improved aesthetics and ease of navigation. The positive feedback was so significant that users across other departments within HDI requested the adoption of the new interface for their systems as well. Furthermore, the successful integration of the Bootstrap framework provided a standardized and efficient approach for developing future interfaces, streamlining development efforts and ensuring a consistent user experience across the organization. This initiative not only resolved the immediate user dissatisfaction but also established a more modern and scalable UI development practice within HDI.