This is a very hard problem. Not a silver bullet but I’ve often found that metrics are the best way (again not guaranteed) to get the money (wo)men on board. If

This is a very hard problem. Not a silver bullet but I’ve often found that metrics are the best way (again not guaranteed) to get the money (wo)men on board. If you can demonstrate concretely how the legacy code affects your operational readiness or agility, it might make it a better sell to invest in refactoring. However the lack of standard tools to do this is a problem. The problem with code is that most non technical companies don’t have a clue how this thing works. They use analogies. And for most folks the analogy is that of a machine that once built never breaks down. If you can demonstrate viscerally how bad the system is, it can help get better support.