Incremental remediation
On This Lesson 4 topics
This lesson is planned. The outline below lists the topics it will cover. The full lesson has not been published yet.
In this lesson
pay down debt alongside feature work instead of in rewrites.
Planned topics
- Boy-scout rule: leave code a little better than you found it, within the change you are making.
- Strangler technique: route new behavior to a new implementation and retire the old piece by piece.
- Make the change safe first: add characterization tests before refactoring.
- Allocate a steady share of capacity, or attach debt work to features that touch the area.
- "Rewrite everything" is rarely a remediation plan: it delays value and repeats risk.
Draft outline details
Demonstration
A strangler plan for pricing: add tests, extract an interface, route the new discount rules to a new module behind a flag, shrink the old module until removable.
Check your understanding
Why add tests before refactoring?
Show answer
To confirm behavior stays the same.
Practice
Apply this lesson with the module's lab, exercises and quiz.
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