One of the most common IT questions is: How to allocate time for refactoring?
It’s common for both developers and testers. Both get very quickly a heap of dirty unreadable code, a plenty of slow, unmaintainable, unreadable tests. It’s getting harder and harder to live with it. Development/testing is getting slower. Motivation decreases. Sometimes you happen to clean up some lines in the evening time, but… it seems to be something wrong with the evening-time work?..
- Where is the justice?
- Am I the only who needs it?
- Why doesn’t my boss allocate me time for refactoring?
I know. I also went through it.
No way
Now, let’s face the truth. If somebody comes to me and asks to allocate one week for refactoring, I will refuse.
Let me explain why. Because refactoring can last endlessly, but somebody should do the work.
10 years ago I was hurt to hear this. Now I am saying it by myself. Moreover, I claim that cleaning code at evening hours is not unfairly - it’s unprofessional.
So, have I lost my ideal?
Absolutely not.
Exactly the opposite. Now I am pretty sure that refactoring is absolutely required. Code must be continuously cleaned up through thick and thin. It just needs to be performed a little bit differently.
You must not ask anybody to allocate a separate time for refactoring. Refactoring is not a separate thing, independent from development/testing. Refactoring is part of coding. Refactoring is part of writing automated tests. It’s the same natural and necessary part as typing, compilation and run.
The following is my receipt:
Small steps!
Recall TDD. Your process should look like this:
- Write test (red) - 1 hour
- Write code (to make test green) - 1 hour
- Refactor (to make code/tests readable and clean) - 1 hour
- Make a tea, go to step 1.
This is a continuous process. Small steps. Continuous progress. Hot tea.
(Depending on programming language, project and people “1 hour” can be replaced by “5 minutes” or whatever else.)
But what my boss would think about it?
Nobody will blame you that you are wasting time, if you show continuous progress. If you create new features every day. In case of testers - create new automated tests every day.
Nobody ever got fired for doing feature in 6 hours instead of 5 hours.
Think about it. You boss does not know exactly, how long this feature should be implemented. It means that he can never prove that you wasted additional time for writing tests or refactoring. The opposite is also true - you cannot prove (with facts and numbers) that refactoring speeds up the development time. Both of you can prove nothing. So, just work so as you believe is good to work.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not calling for sabotage. I am not calling for doing your job longer than needed. Just opposite: I believe that this simple receipt lets you do your job faster:
Small steps: Test. Code. Refactor.
So, I don’t need to ask for permission?
If somebody comes to me asking to allocate time for refactoring, I will reject. For the very simple reason: he does not know the TDD mantra. He will almost certainly refucktor this week, and nothing gets remarkably better as a result.
Good doctor doesn’t ask permission to wash his hands before a surgery. Good artist doesn’t ask permission to spend time for tuning his instrument. Somehow all the people understand that this is needed. Without wasting time on washing hands and tuning the instrument, they just cannot do their job well. So, are you worse, my dear professional developers and testers?
But don’t forget that doctor manages to cure at least somebody in a day. And artist manages to play at least few songs per concert. That’s why refactoring for a week, and not refactoring at all are both bad.
Small steps. Continuous progress. Tea with ginger.
And with cookies.
17.12.14