Loving Legacy Code

Are you approaching the challenge of working with legacy code with helpful techniques and a good attitude?

Accompanying blog post at http://keithpitty.com/blog/archives/2015-02-06-loving-legacy-code

Presented at RubyConf Australia on 5 February, 2015.

Transcript

1. Loving Legacy Code Keith Pitty
2. Loving legacy code?
3. Seriously?
4. Do you love legacy code?
5. Legacy deserves respect!
6. More love!
7. Approach Techniques Attitude
8. What is legacy code?
9. No tests? What is legacy code?
10. Impedes change What is legacy code?
11. Why so negative?
12. Technical debt? Why so negative?
13. Poor design Why so negative?
14. Obfuscation Why so negative?
15. Counterproductive tests Why so negative?
16. No “shiny” tech? Why so negative?
17. Tender loving care
18. OK, maybe beyond TLC
19. Or maybe not …
20. Original developers?
21. Understand why Original developers?
22. Respect Original developers?
23. Learn from mistakes Original developers?
24. Approach Techniques Attitude
25. Pain points
26. Customer feedback Pain points
27. Monitoring tools Pain points
28. Listen to developers Pain points
29. Measure code quality Pain points
30. Nursing legacy code
31. Version control! Nursing legacy code
32. Testing
33. No tests? Nursing legacy code: testing
34. Unit tests Nursing legacy code: testing
35. Fast feedback Nursing legacy code: testing
36. Break dependencies Nursing legacy code: testing
37. Nurture tests Nursing legacy code: testing
38. Remove tests? Nursing legacy code: testing
39. Nurture CI builds Nursing legacy code: testing
40. Refactoring
41. Refactor judiciously Nursing legacy code: refactoring
42. Separate concerns Nursing legacy code: refactoring
43. e.g. Rails models Nursing legacy code: refactoring
44. Nursing legacy code
45. Service classes Nursing legacy code: refactoring
46. “Best” Practices Nursing legacy code: refactoring
47. Simplify design Nursing legacy code: refactoring
48. 1. Tests pass 2. Expresses intent 3. No duplication 4. Small Nursing legacy code: refactoring
49. “Remove duplication and improve names in small cycles.” — JB Rainsberger Nursing legacy code: refactoring
50. Less code Nursing legacy code: refactoring
51. Satisfaction Nursing legacy code: refactoring
52. Design Opportunities Nursing legacy code: refactoring
53. Tool support
54. Nursing legacy code: tool support
55. RuboCop Nursing legacy code: tool support
56. Other open source Section
57. Automate workflow Nursing legacy code: tool support
58. Managing legacy code
59. Invest wisely Managing legacy code
60. Maintenance effort Managing legacy code
61. Maintenance budget Managing legacy code
62. If necessary … Managing legacy code
63. migrate away Managing legacy code
64. Approach Techniques Attitude
65. Approach Techniques Attitude
66. Managers
67. Devote resources Managers
68. Listen to developers Managers
69. Respect Managers
70. Share support roles Managers
71. Developers
72. Share knowledge Developers
73. GitHub PRs Developers
74. Future Developers
75. Language Developers
76. Respect past Developers
77. No codebase is perfect Developers
78. Listen to managers Developers
79. Respect Developers
80. Metaphors
81. Nursing Metaphors
82. Gardening Metaphors
83. Renovation Metaphors
84. Conclusion
85. Loving legacy code …
86. can be rewarding
87. Respect
88. Thanks for listening!
89. Keith Pitty @keithpitty