I'm giving my talk OMG! This Codebase Sucks! which tries to lay out some ideas to help people fix up problematic codebases while continuing to deliver value via new features, bugfixes, etc. My goal for the talk is to help attendees learn how to decide which parts of the system and environment to focus on, and how to figure out which sections of the codebase to start tearing apart or outright burning down and rebuilding.
All of this has to be done in the context of keeping the system in a state where the team can continue to ship on a regular, if occasionally slightly interrupted, pace. After all, accomplishing the organization's mission doesn't miraculously stop for months so you can focus all your delivery efforts on completely re-writing a codebase! (Occasionally it does, but rarely.)
If you've been around legacy software and struggled through this, then I'd encourage you to attend the talk. You might learn a helpful hint or two, and just as importantly, you might be able to share a gem or three with the other attendees. (Yes, I love interactive audiences in my talks!)
Why ThatConference?
If you're unfamiliar with ThatConference, I encourage you to have a look at it. It's a community-spawned conference that rivals many commercial "big" conferences for content. Moreover, ThatConference (and CodeMash) has an amazing amount of hallway interaction between really smart, passionate folks from widely differing domains. You're able to learn how people from Ruby, Java, .NET, JavaScript, and other domains solve the same sorts of problems you're running into every. single. day. and you'll learn vastly different approaches which will help you as you move forward in your own domain.
Time's short, but tickets are still available.
Just. Go. Do. It.
