Robby speaks with Anna Filina, a software consultant at Zenika Montreal who specializes in legacy code. They discuss why engineers don't have to ask permission to write tests, why convincing people to get on board with your technical plans matters, and what a "software archaeologist" really does.
Anna explains that every software decision introduces some form of technical debt. The key is making conscious decisions about which debt to take on and having a plan to manage it over time.
What is Anna Filina's approach to rescuing legacy projects?
Anna specializes in legacy project rescue by first adding tests to understand existing behavior, then refactoring incrementally. She emphasizes that understanding the business context is as important as understanding the code.
How does Anna Filina recommend teams handle untested code?
Anna advocates starting with high-level integration tests to capture existing behavior, then gradually adding unit tests as you refactor. She recommends focusing testing efforts on the parts of the codebase that change most frequently.
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