Government runs on software older than the people maintaining it. COBOL systems from the 1960s still process unemployment claims. Tax systems built decades ago handle millions of returns. The people who understand these systems are retiring, and their knowledge is leaving with them.
Traditional modernization approaches have failed repeatedly. Big-bang replacements collapse under their own weight. Direct code translation preserves bugs while losing business logic. Billions spent, little to show.
There’s a better way.
The SpecOps Method treats specifications, not code, as the source of truth. AI extracts knowledge from legacy systems. Domain experts verify what the systems actually do and why. New implementations flow from documented understanding rather than translated code.
The result: modernization that preserves institutional knowledge instead of losing it, and systems designed to evolve rather than calcify.
Civic Innovations 