Refactoring AF (After Fowler): Some Large Refactoring Patterns

Track: Agile

Abstract

Martin Fowler’s Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code was first published in 1999. What have we learned since then about refactoring? What should we, as professional software developers, know before deciding to do a refactor on a legacy codebase? What is the thought process we need to apply when choosing a new design for existing code? This talk will delve into these questions with examples and humor.

The audience for this session is software developers and the people that interface with them (product owners, scrum masters, development managers) who need to know the value of this important and often neglected technical practice.

At the end of the session, the attendee will be able to plan a refactoring effort on legacy codebases, apply refactoring techniques beyond those listed in Fowler, and recognize accidental code complexity in large codebases.

Aaron McClennen

A 27 year java veteran. I wrote my first java program in java 1.0 when AWT on the mac and unix were different. Since that time I have written uncounted lines of java code, and rewritten most of them. When I first read Fowlers Refactoring my life changed for the better as I realized there was a safe way to fix code that no longer suited.

M. Jeff Wilson

M. Jeff Wilson is an avid software developer, published author, certified scrum master and SAFe Program Consultant, and lifelong learner. He has worked with teams in the telecommunications, insurance, traffic engineering, retail, and other industries to develop and deliver solutions and improve processes. Jeff has been coding since 1981, starting with punch cards and FORTRAN at Georgia Tech, and BASIC on a friend’s Apple IIe. Jeff enjoys gaming, running, music, homebrewing, and, yes, coding in his spare time.