22
votes
Accepted
Is lack of functional requirements agile?
Whether or not lacking functional requirements is agile, it is a recipe for disaster. You cannot rebuild a system when you do not know how that system works.
You need to tell the business owner that ...
- 46.2k
17
votes
Is lack of functional requirements agile?
Agile doesn't change the need for functional requirements, but it does generally change how you gather them. The non-agile way is for someone to go through a long process then give you some sort of ...
- 149k
15
votes
Accepted
How to deal with a large codebase with no requirements and the responsible person leaving the company soon
I have ported several older VB6 applications to the .NET framework, all of them with almost no documentation, from that experience I can I give you some recommendations. First, let me say, getting rid ...
- 220k
15
votes
Rewrite or Transpiler - How to move away from a proprietary SAAS solution
Let's me take on your issues one-by-one:
the current implementation has bugs
Yep, and when you transpile such a code, what makes you think those bugs will not be transpiled as well? With a rewrite, ...
- 220k
14
votes
Is code being constantly rewritten and is it therefore pointless to worry about the quality of the early iterations of rewriting code?
In the University one of the lecturers ..
Sounds like an academic who is suffering from the Dunning-Kruger effect. But maybe you have just misinterpreted some of his statements.
Rewriting code, even ...
- 220k
11
votes
Refactoring - is it appropriate to simply rewrite code, as long as all tests pass?
Is this a failure of testing - because there were no tests for these particular edge cases? Or a failure of refactoring - because the code should have been transformed step-by-step rather than ...
- 220k
9
votes
Accepted
Code review turned into rewrite, should I push my changes?
As a baseline, fixes should be implemented by the author, not the reviewer. This is to ensure that the author learns what needs to be fixed, in the hopes that they learn to do it right the first time ...
- 59.5k
8
votes
When is a rewrite appropriate?
Do you have complete, detailed, and comprehensive set of requirements, preferably as executable tests?
I'm going to guess: No as the writer probably hasn't discovered those yet...
In such a case, ...
- 16.6k
8
votes
Is code being constantly rewritten and is it therefore pointless to worry about the quality of the early iterations of rewriting code?
This is something that I would be very wary of in a private company. I have personally encountered a number of times that a 'quick and dirty' prototype has been put in place and that 'prototype' has ...
- 2,633
7
votes
Writing software from scratch in business
is it ok to start a business project from scratch and write every piece of code from zero?
It is, if this adds value for the customer. The problem is this is often done just because the developers ...
- 120k
7
votes
Code review turned into rewrite, should I push my changes?
Your task as a reviewer is to review, not rewrite. Review has two goals, ensuring the quality of code that your organization produces, and advancing the skills of those who write the code. If you just ...
- 18.6k
6
votes
4 Months of Code Rewritten in 2 Days Team Dilemma
Code doesn't take very long to write.
What takes time is for the developer to make their own understanding, necessary to write the code correctly. Months isn't an unreasonable amount of time, if you'...
- 12.6k
6
votes
Rewrite or Transpiler - How to move away from a proprietary SAAS solution
Obviously you ask "rewrite or transpile?", but I'm not clear what the underlying issue is.
You mention the existing implementation is riddled with bugs. You mention that there is limited ...
- 12.6k
5
votes
How to deal with a large codebase with no requirements and the responsible person leaving the company soon
Don't.
While a rewrite due to "outdated technology" may seem like a good idea, it is not!
Every year, a new and cool technology arrives. Few years later, everyone considers it outdated.
Do you want ...
- 2,579
5
votes
How to deal with a large codebase with no requirements and the responsible person leaving the company soon
Try to find out why they want a rewrite. Be sure to mention that a complete rewrite just to rewrite it does not make sense. It will take a long time, and it will be buggy. Also point out that most ...
- 1,132
5
votes
How to determine if a module within an application is worth refactoring or rewriting?
The rule, if there were one that made sense, would not be different for modules than for any other unit of code. After all every piece of code is a module, that is just semantics and perspective.
In ...
- 18.6k
5
votes
What are some considerations when deciding to fix a bug, or rewrite the code in question?
Perhaps you are using "root cause" in a different way but identifying and fixing the root cause doesn't fix the bug. The root cause(s) are the underlying factors that led to the defect being ...
- 85.9k
5
votes
Should I split backend into legacy and modern app to make the rewrite feasible?
What would the situation be if you did nothing - that is, neither split the codebase nor rewrote the whole, and just worked within the legacy framework?
It sounds like you don't have the resources for ...
- 12.6k
4
votes
How to deal with a large codebase with no requirements and the responsible person leaving the company soon
Good luck.
The first thing to clarify with your boss is the time frame involved. Rewriting 250,000 lines of code will take you years. Do they understand this? But then there seem to be things in ...
- 49.4k
4
votes
Accepted
Gap between Code base and Production application
So it seems you are planning to rewrite the original application step-by-step and replace it with a new application. Depending on the application logic, a "step-by-step" approach maybe possible or not,...
- 220k
4
votes
Accepted
How important is it to have a consistent technological stack?
First, let me summarize what you are asking here (the core question does not seem to be so broad as the question's title pretends). You are not asking about all kinds of projects, but specifially ...
- 220k
4
votes
Is lack of functional requirements agile?
Capturing requirements is an essential part of any (successful) software project. But writing a requirements specification isn't.
A documentation-centric approach can end up like a game of Chinese ...
- 136k
3
votes
Writing software from scratch in business
is it ok to start a business project from scratch and write every
piece of code from zero?
Yes, if that's what you want to do.
Its not typically the most practical way of doing things, and you ...
- 39.4k
3
votes
Accepted
Writing software from scratch in business
What's the value that you want to bring into the market? What can you do better than your competitors?
If it's writing software frameworks, then don't hide them in a single-market end product, but ...
- 6,276
3
votes
Is code being constantly rewritten and is it therefore pointless to worry about the quality of the early iterations of rewriting code?
What I find is that when presented with 2 extremes the answer is usually somewhere in the middle. Another great read would be The Cathedral and the Bazaar, which on the surface would seem to echo ...
- 46.5k
3
votes
When is a rewrite appropriate?
We are in a unique position now where the company is going to bet
everything on this one piece of software written by someone who has
never written production software before.
This is a huge risk.
...
- 1,258
3
votes
Accepted
Approach for rewriting a large, mission-critical method
Is following this approach a good idea for my situation?
Only having this 50.000 feet view presented, I would say yes. Splitting up a complex process into several small, independent steps with a ...
- 220k
3
votes
How should one perform a major refactor in parallel with continuous delivery of new features?
Don't do a Big Bang
The software that already exists has taken X developers * Y Man Years to develop to the state its already in. In which universe do you think that you can catch up to that and be ...
- 16.6k
3
votes
How to determine if a module within an application is worth refactoring or rewriting?
Yes, there can be reasons to do a full rewrite of a module. The primary reason would be that the way that the module is supposed to deliver its functionality must change very radically.
Then you can ...
3
votes
What are some considerations when deciding to fix a bug, or rewrite the code in question?
In addition to @ThomasOwen's answer, which I agree with, I miss something more when it comes to considering (or not) rewriting code and it's context.
We, developers, more often than not have very ...
- 15k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible