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Discussion on: Do you schedule time and tasks for refactors?

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Christopher McClellan

I tell this story a lot. I like telling it, so I’ll tell it here.

The single proudest day I’ve ever had at work went something like this.

I’m sitting at my desk, working on getting some really gnarly legacy code under test and I wasn’t having a good go of it. I’d already had to roll back a few attempts at doing so. That’s when I overhear this conversation.

Jr. Dev 1: Hey man... this thing could really use some refactoring. What should I do? Who do I need to ask for approval?

Jr. Dev 2: Do it man. It’s just part of the work. Just wrap it in some tests before you change it much.

That was the precise moment I knew I had succeeded as a Sr. Dev at the company.