Rewriting From Scratch vs Incremental Improvement
Developers should consider rewriting from scratch when the current codebase is so brittle, poorly documented, or technologically obsolete that incremental improvements are impractical or too costly meets developers should adopt incremental improvement when working on complex projects where requirements may evolve, as it allows for early delivery of value, easier integration of user feedback, and reduced risk of failure compared to big-bang approaches. Here's our take.
Rewriting From Scratch
Developers should consider rewriting from scratch when the current codebase is so brittle, poorly documented, or technologically obsolete that incremental improvements are impractical or too costly
Rewriting From Scratch
Nice PickDevelopers should consider rewriting from scratch when the current codebase is so brittle, poorly documented, or technologically obsolete that incremental improvements are impractical or too costly
Pros
- +It is particularly useful for legacy systems with high maintenance costs, security vulnerabilities, or scalability limitations that hinder business growth
- +Related to: refactoring, technical-debt-management
Cons
- -Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case
Incremental Improvement
Developers should adopt incremental improvement when working on complex projects where requirements may evolve, as it allows for early delivery of value, easier integration of user feedback, and reduced risk of failure compared to big-bang approaches
Pros
- +It is particularly useful in agile environments, continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, and when maintaining legacy systems, as it enables manageable updates without disrupting existing functionality
- +Related to: agile-methodology, continuous-integration
Cons
- -Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case
The Verdict
Use Rewriting From Scratch if: You want it is particularly useful for legacy systems with high maintenance costs, security vulnerabilities, or scalability limitations that hinder business growth and can live with specific tradeoffs depend on your use case.
Use Incremental Improvement if: You prioritize it is particularly useful in agile environments, continuous integration/continuous deployment (ci/cd) pipelines, and when maintaining legacy systems, as it enables manageable updates without disrupting existing functionality over what Rewriting From Scratch offers.
Developers should consider rewriting from scratch when the current codebase is so brittle, poorly documented, or technologically obsolete that incremental improvements are impractical or too costly
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