Last updated on 2024年9月25日

How do you identify and prioritize the most critical parts of legacy code to refactor?

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Legacy code can be a nightmare for any developer. It's often poorly documented, hard to understand, and full of bugs and technical debt. But sometimes, you have no choice but to work with it and improve it. How can you refactor legacy code using patterns and make it more maintainable, readable, and testable?

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Nadeem Malik

Enterprise Architect - providing enterprise-wide insights, promoting standardization, reducing costs, mitigating risk…
Mohammed Abrar

Technology Architect - Presales & Delivery | Smart Metering | IoT | Edge Computing

1 Why refactor legacy code?

Refactoring is the process of changing the internal structure of code without altering its external behavior. It can improve the quality, performance, and security of code, as well as make it easier to extend and modify. Legacy code, on the other hand, is code that has been inherited from previous developers or projects, and that may not meet the current standards or requirements. Refactoring legacy code can help you fix bugs, add features, and adapt to changing environments.

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Nadeem Malik

Enterprise Architect - providing enterprise-wide insights, promoting standardization, reducing costs, mitigating risk, increasing agility, realizing strategies, and driving innovation.
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Refactoring legacy code is like renovating an old house - it improves the foundation without changing the exterior. As an Enterprise Architect, I see it as crucial for maintaining system health & agility. It reduces technical debt, enhances maintainability, and enables faster feature delivery. But remember, refactoring isn't a silver bullet - it's a strategic tool in your architectural toolkit.

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2 How to identify and prioritize refactoring targets?

Before refactoring legacy code, it is important to have a clear understanding of which parts of the code are the most critical and problematic. To do this, various tools and techniques can be used to analyze the code and pinpoint areas that need improvement. These include code metrics, which are quantitative measures of code quality such as complexity, cohesion, coupling, duplication, test coverage, etc. Code reviews are collaborative sessions where developers examine the code and provide feedback, suggestions and corrections. Additionally, code tests are automated or manual procedures that verify the functionality, reliability and performance of the code. After identifying which parts of the code need refactoring, they should be prioritized according to their impact, urgency and feasibility. A matrix or list can be used to rank refactoring targets based on their importance and difficulty.

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Mohammed Abrar

Technology Architect - Presales & Delivery | Smart Metering | IoT | Edge Computing
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Analysis of code by using Code Quality Analyzers, SAST, DAST, SCA, Application Pen Testing tools periodically for code that doesn't change frequently and also integrated as part of CI build quality step to ensure all changes to code passes quality gates. This will help us in identifying refactoring targets and their severity, either technical or business, lets us prioritize the targets. These can be as simple as hardcoded magic numbers or critical security vulnerabilities. Based on the severity, priority and effort involved, these can be added to product backlog and picked up immediately or later.

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Nadeem Malik

Enterprise Architect - providing enterprise-wide insights, promoting standardization, reducing costs, mitigating risk, increasing agility, realizing strategies, and driving innovation.
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Identifying refactoring targets is like triage in a hospital - you need to assess & prioritize. Use a mix of code metrics, reviews, & tests to diagnose issues. Then, create a prioritization matrix based on impact vs. effort. Don't forget to consider business value - sometimes the most technically "ugly" code isn't the most critical to refactor. It's about balancing technical purity with practical outcomes.

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3 How to choose and apply refactoring patterns?

Refactoring patterns are reliable solutions to common code issues and involve transforming the code from one state to another while preserving its behavior and functionality. You can find many refactoring patterns in books, websites, and tools, such as extracting a part of a long or complex method into a separate method (Extract Method), changing the name of a variable to make it more descriptive and consistent (Rename Variable), or replacing a series of if-else or switch statements with subclasses that implement different behaviors based on their type (Replace Conditional with Polymorphism). To choose and apply a refactoring pattern, you need to first identify the problem, then select the pattern, apply it in the code, and finally test the code to ensure that it still works as expected after the refactoring.

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Nadeem Malik

Enterprise Architect - providing enterprise-wide insights, promoting standardization, reducing costs, mitigating risk, increasing agility, realizing strategies, and driving innovation.
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Choosing refactoring patterns is akin to selecting the right tool for a job. First, clearly define the problem you're solving. Then, match it to established patterns like Extract Method or Replace Conditional with Polymorphism. But dont get too caught up in textbook solutions - sometimes a custom approach works best. Remember, the goal is improved code, not pattern purity.

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4 How to avoid common refactoring pitfalls?

Refactoring legacy code can be a challenging and risky task, as it may involve breaking dependencies, losing functionality, and introducing bugs. To avoid these pitfalls, it is important to plan ahead and have a clear goal, scope, and strategy. Additionally, it is necessary to backup your code before making any changes, use version control to track and manage changes, and write tests to verify correctness and quality. This will help ensure that your code meets the requirements, performs well, and does not break anything.

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5 How to measure and communicate refactoring results?

Refactoring legacy code can have significant benefits for your project and team, and it's important to measure and communicate these benefits to stakeholders and clients. To do so, you can use a variety of methods and metrics, such as code metrics. Compare the code metrics before and after refactoring to show how you improved the code quality, performance, and security. Invite other developers to review your refactored code and provide feedback, suggestions, and compliments. Additionally, run tests before and after refactoring to show how you fixed bugs, added features, and enhanced functionality. Refactoring legacy code can improve skills, code, and the project, ultimately delivering better products and services to customers and users.

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6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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How do you identify and prioritize the most critical parts of legacy code to refactor?

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1 Why refactor legacy code?

2 How to identify and prioritize refactoring targets?

3 How to choose and apply refactoring patterns?

4 How to avoid common refactoring pitfalls?

5 How to measure and communicate refactoring results?

6 Here’s what else to consider

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