Refactor or rewrite? Crucial questions to ask and key things to do that have nothing to do with technology
This talk is targetted towards the entire team. Supriya will take you on a walk through some dark corners of your software. Places where people hold grim and sensitive discussions around how to provide value to customers when cleaning some old code.
This session investigates several key questions you need to ask when thinking about rewrites and tech debt. Supriya unpacks the standard arguments for rewrites and investigates the risks an opportunities in them. She also addresses how to build a business case for technical programs that everyone can get behind.
Walking out of this session you will be aware of the complexity of the rewrite discussion, have tool to think better about the choice, and be more able to explain business benefits in the language of the business beyond the tech team.
Key learning - how to approach the hard questions that may be asked around the technical tasks. How to ask the right questions to the technical team and be an effective non-technical participant in such discussions.
Outline/Structure of the Talk
Supriya will state the problem; how do you decide to rewrite or refactor? She will then address myths and misconceptions in this discussion.
After setting the scene Supriya will then provide pragmatic advice on how to collectively think about the problem and decide what to do.
Learning Outcome
Participants will be better informed about how to think about addressing tech debt and particularly equipped to address the rewrite/refactor question.
Target Audience
People involved in Software Product Development
Prerequisites for Attendees
Be familiar with the idea of tech debt.
schedule Submitted 5 years ago
Recent Activities
Call for Proposals CLOSED
Ended on Jun 6 '18 11:30 PM AEST
This conference is about learning and sharing from our colleagues. Over the years we have come to value the following things;
- Interactive sessions over presentations
- Specific tools and techniques over general frameworks
- Learning from mistakes and failures over sharing sanitised success stories
- Diversity of content over following industry best practices
- Evidence based approaches over novel ideas
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.
Craig Brown
Hengzhi Shao
Gabor Devenyi
Hamdam Bishop
Tony Fifoot
