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Refactoring

Contents

What is Refactoring?
Why Conduct Refactoring?

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What is Refactoring?

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Definition of Refactoring

Refactoring is when the development team cleans the underlying code or makes changes to the internal structure of software, in order to make improvements. Normally, the ultimate consumer would not be aware of such alterations.

Why Conduct Refactoring?

The principle aim is to enable the development team to continue to work on the code intuitively: adapting and adding features going forward. Refactoring the code can enable development teams to improve its readability and reduce its complexity. This in turn can make it easier to undertake maintenance and will make the code or internal structure more receptive to later innovations.

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General FAQ

What does Refactoring mean in coding?

Code refactoring involves adjusting a program’s internal structure without making any changes to its external behavior or functionality. The aim is to boost the program’s non-functional properties, making code easier to work with or enhancing its readability, without creating new functionality — and without users even noticing!

What is Refactoring in Agile?

In Agile methodology, refactoring refers to improving a program’s internal structure, without altering its external behavior. As such, fixing bugs or rewriting existing code falls beyond the scope of refactoring — as this changes the UX. Refactoring can help developers eliminate complexity, and is generally performed in small increments rather than in larger processes.

When should Refactoring be done?

Refactoring should be considered in a variety of situations. For example, it may prove beneficial when making major upgrades, encountering a high number of bugs within a program, addressing duplicated coding, or when struggling to read code. Refactoring can also be useful when a business is faced with technical debt.

Why is Refactoring your code important?

Code refactoring can help developers to make significant improvements to an application’s design, find and address internal bugs, enhance the speed at which a program runs, correct a legacy database, and to deliver more consistency to the end-user in the long run.

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