Platform Evolution
Assessment run-2026-07-27-1 · 213 of 213 repos assessed
Repos / backoffice-useraccount-service

backoffice-useraccount-service

WCF service that is the entry point for creating, reading, updating, searching and authenticating Travel Counsellor user accounts, backed by the UserAccount SQL database with a MongoDB read model and stream-published update events.

48 · redhighloosely attachedOn-premZDD: a long roadservice

Health score

48

0 to 100 across seven weighted factors; nothing is hidden. Green is 75 and above, amber 50 to 74, red below 50. How scoring works.


Runtime currency / 25
0
.NET Framework, out of mainstream support
Legacy transport / 15
2
Hosts WCF or SOAP endpoints with no successor on modern .NET
Test posture / 15
8
Some tests, coverage is thin
Security hygiene / 15
15
No credentials found in source
Dangerous coupling / 15
9
40 dependents without good tests
Activity / 10
10
Actively maintained
Deployment hygiene / 5
5
CI in place
Health over time
2026-07-24 (run-2026-07-24-1): 482026-07-27 (run-2026-07-27-1): 48
No change since 2026-07-24 (48 to 48).

Facts

Languagescsharp, sql
FrameworksWCF
Runtimes.NET Framework 4.7.2, .NET Standard 2.0 (libraries)
Tests / CIsome / CI in place
Last commit2026-07-13
OwnerOwner unknown (mapping to be curated)
DomainIdentity and access (system generated; curate in repo-owners.json to override)
Product areaPhenix
HostedOn-prem Deployed to our own machines
  • Release "\finance\backoffice-useraccount-service CI": QA: deployment-group phase (agents on our own machines)
  • Release "\finance\backoffice-useraccount-service CI": Staging: deployment-group phase (agents on our own machines)
  • Release "\finance\backoffice-useraccount-service CI": Production: deployment-group phase (agents on our own machines)
  • Release "\finance\backoffice-useraccount-service CI": Training: deployment-group phase (agents on our own machines)
  • Release "\finance\backoffice-useraccount-service CI": DR: deployment-group phase (agents on our own machines)
Releases2 release pipeline(s): \finance\backoffice-useraccount-service CI; \finance\backoffice\UserAccount Database
Integrationwcf, soap, redis-streams
SourceOpen in Azure DevOps

Risk flags

Each flag links to its glossary definition.

Dependencies in context

Laying out the graph…
greenamberreddata store (square, dashed link)Node size follows fan-in. Click any node to open it.

Entanglement

loosely attached Bound into the core by 1 mechanism(s).

  • Speaks WCF (host)

Detaches when its WCF surface gains a modern interface or its WCF calls move to one.

Migration playbooks

Generated from this repo's assessment data: what is feasible, what blocks it, and the steps in order. Ratings: green means actionable now, amber means sequence other work first, red means blocked, grey means not applicable.

ZDD adoption

A long road

Technically eligible one day, but the blockers are structural: hosted WCF or SOAP contracts that cannot run two versions at once, or heavy legacy coupling. Sequence the modernisation work first. Hosts WCF or SOAP endpoints: strict serialization contracts cannot safely run two versions at once (the shared-enum trap). End-of-life runtime compounds the work.

Dependencies and gotchas
  • 40 system(s) depend on this repo; during a rolling deploy they will talk to old and new versions at once, so responses must stay compatible
  • Serialized state or messages in flight (Redis or queues): new code must deserialize objects written by the previous version
Steps
  1. Adopt the four-stage discipline from the ZDD engineering standard: pre-deployment compatibility, deployment, feature activation behind a flag, post-release cleanup.
  2. Raise automated test coverage first: ZDD trades the end-of-sprint manual gate for continuous automated confidence, so the tests are the entry ticket.
  3. Make every change dual-version safe: backwards-compatible APIs (new major version for breaking wire changes), expand and contract for any schema change, and consumers tolerant of unknown fields.
  4. Audit serialized data: anything in Redis, queues or shared caches must deserialize cleanly across adjacent versions.
  5. Wrap behaviour changes in feature flags so code deploys dark and release becomes a business decision, not a deployment event.
  6. Route deployments through the Workflow Engine's automated drain, deploy, health-check, return cycle (the path proven by the first automated production run in mid-2026).
  7. Verify with area-scoped regression rather than the whole-platform cycle, and watch error rates after rollout with automated rollback on alert.

SQL Server exit

Blocked by a shared database

sqlserver:UserAccount is shared, so this system cannot change engine on its own: every sharer moves in convoy. Either agree the move with all sharers as one programme, or first split this system's data out behind an owned API, then follow the steps below.

Blockers
Steps
  1. Inventory the schema and query surface of sqlserver:UserAccount: tables, stored procedures, triggers, cross-database joins and anything else engine-specific.
  2. Confirm the target: PostgreSQL (relational model; keep transactions and joins, swap the engine).
  3. Replatform to modern .NET first (see the recommended actions): current PostgreSQL and MongoDB drivers and EF Core providers target modern .NET, and doing one risky change at a time is cheaper than doing two.
  4. Data access is not through an ORM, so port the SQL by hand: translate T-SQL constructs, replace stored procedures with application code or target-native equivalents, and add integration tests around the queries that matter first.
  5. Stand up the target alongside SQL Server, backfill with an ETL pass (pgloader or an export/import job), then dual-write or replicate until parity is proven.
  6. Move reads to the target, watch correctness and latency, then cut writes over and keep SQL Server read-only until confidence is earned.
  7. Decommission the SQL Server database and remove the connection strings and firewall paths that pointed at it.

Containerisation

Feasible after replatforming

Appropriate eventually, but not from here: the legacy runtime and the hosted WCF surface both have to go first, and that work is already in this repo's recommended actions.

Blockers
Steps
  1. Replatform to modern .NET first (see the recommended actions), replacing the hosted WCF/SOAP surface with REST, gRPC or messaging so consumers can follow. Containerising then becomes routine.
  2. Add a Dockerfile and make the app read all configuration from environment variables and the secrets manager, never from machine-local files.
  3. Log to stdout and expose a health check endpoint so ECS can supervise it.
  4. Adopt the shared ci.yml pipeline template with the container parameters (awsRegion, containerAfterBuild, ecsTerraformRepo), which is exactly how the estate's existing AWS services deploy.
  5. Define the service in the Terraform repo, deploy to a non-production environment, then shift traffic and disarm the deployment-group release pipeline.

Recommended actions

Replatform backoffice-useraccount-service to modern .NET

Runs on .NET Framework 4.7.2, .NET Standard 2.0 (libraries), out of mainstream support. No pinning dependency blocks it; sequence by fan-in (providers before consumers).

Impact: Unblocks 40 dependent system(s)

proposed

Raise the test floor on backoffice-useraccount-service

40 systems depend on it and test coverage is thin. Chokepoints carry good tests before they are changed.

Impact: De-risks change for 40 dependent systems

proposed

Assessment notes

backoffice-useraccount-service

Purpose

CRUD, search and authentication service for user accounts (GetUserAccount, SaveUserAccount, SearchUserAccount, AuthenticateUserAccount, branch-to-account lookups, leaving/retainment reasons). Publishes TC.UserAccount.ServiceContract, ServiceClient, Validation and Events NuGet packages consumed across the estate (e.g. by backoffice-receipt-service).

Tech stack

C#: TC.UserAccount.ServiceHost is a WCF host on .NET Framework 4.7.2 with SimpleInjector; data layer (Service.Data, net472) uses raw SQL (SqlClient unit-of-work) plus MongoDB.Driver for a UserAccounts read model; contract/client packages multi-target netstandard2.0/net462/net472. TC.UserAccount.Events (netstandard2.0) defines stream events on TC.Streams. GeoCoordinates component calls the address-lookup WCF service.

Deployment

Actively deployed (prod_application, 2 releases). Build pipelines backoffice-useraccount-service CI (azure-pipelines.yml: VS 2022 build of ServiceHost plus dotnet packaging of four NuGet packages) and backoffice-useraccount-service Database (build-useraccount.db.yml); release pipelines \finance\backoffice-useraccount-service CI and \finance\backoffice\UserAccount Database.

Dependencies

Calls the address-lookup service (TC.AddressLookup.ServiceContract via ConnectionBroker WCF; repo backoffice-address-lookup-service). Uses shared TC libraries (ConnectionBroker, Phenix.ApplicationFramework, Exceptions, Streams). No third-party external services.

Data stores

SQL Server UserAccount database (owned; schema in db/UserAccountDatabase with change scripts, resolved via GetDatabaseConnectionString("UserAccount")) and MongoDB (UserAccounts) used as a document read model for search/summary queries.

Integration points

Inbound SOAP/WCF via UserAccountServiceHost.svc. Outbound WCF to address lookup. Publishes UserAccountUpdatedEvent to TC.Streams (Redis-stream based) for downstream consumers.

Code health

Two test projects (TC.UserAccount.Test with service tests and a CI assembly-load test, plus GeoCoordinates tests); coverage appears modest. YAML CI in place. Last commit 2026-07-13 — actively maintained.

Modernisation risks

Core service still WCF on .NET Framework 4.7.2 even though contracts multi-target modern frameworks; migrating the host to ASP.NET Core (REST or CoreWCF) is the main work. Dual-write across SQL Server and MongoDB adds consistency risk during any re-platforming, and many estate consumers depend on its NuGet contracts, so changes need coordinated versioning.