Why Refactoring Should Not Be on the Backlog: Continuous Code Improvement
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Front-window bakery material. Catches the eye, delivers the goods.
Summary
Ron Jeffries argues against putting refactoring stories on the product backlog, explaining that refactoring should be done continuously as part of regular development work rather than treated as separate backlog items. He contends that deferring refactoring leads to accumulating technical debt, which slows down feature development and degrades code quality over time. The article advocates for the agile practice of continuous refactoring as an integral part of the development process, not something to be scheduled or backlogged.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledThere has recently been a lot of noise on the lists, and questions at conferences, about putting refactoring 'stories' on the backlog.
Even if 'technical debt' has grown up, this is invariably an inferior idea.
When our project begins, the code is clean. The field is well-mowed, life is good, the world's our oyster.
We can build features smoothly and easily, though we always seem to take a few little twists and turns.
Copyright © 1998-forever Ronald E Jeffries
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