Rewriting vs Incremental Improvement
Developers should consider rewriting when an existing codebase has accumulated significant technical debt, uses outdated technologies that hinder productivity, or has architectural flaws that cannot be fixed through gradual improvements meets developers should adopt incremental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
Developers should consider rewriting when an existing codebase has accumulated significant technical debt, uses outdated technologies that hinder productivity, or has architectural flaws that cannot be fixed through gradual improvements
Rewriting
Nice PickDevelopers should consider rewriting when an existing codebase has accumulated significant technical debt, uses outdated technologies that hinder productivity, or has architectural flaws that cannot be fixed through gradual improvements
Pros
- +Common use cases include migrating monolithic applications to microservices, upgrading from legacy languages like COBOL to modern ones like Java or Python, or when performance bottlenecks require a complete redesign
- +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 if: You want common use cases include migrating monolithic applications to microservices, upgrading from legacy languages like cobol to modern ones like java or python, or when performance bottlenecks require a complete redesign 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 offers.
Developers should consider rewriting when an existing codebase has accumulated significant technical debt, uses outdated technologies that hinder productivity, or has architectural flaws that cannot be fixed through gradual improvements
Disagree with our pick? nice@nicepick.dev