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Ask HN: Inherited the worst code and tech team I have ever seen. How to fix it?

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Re: Ask HN: Inherited the worst code and tech team I have ever seen. How to fix it?

#101

Post by latchkey »

Volundr wrote: post #100
latchkey wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't know that it is functional... maybe the company is only making $20m and should be making $60m. Like I said, we tripled the revenue with a rewrite. What we did was make the case that we could increase revenue by being able to add valuable features more easily/quickly. We started with a super MVP rewrite that kept the basic valuable features, launched, then spent the rest of our time adding features (with test…

> We don't know that it is functional... maybe the company is only making $20m and should be making $60m. Like I said, we tripled the revenue with a rewrite. It's $20m functional. It's possible it could be better but unless this is the kind of huge org where 20m is nothing (doesn't sound like it) you really need the behaviors documented before you start screwing with it. It's very likely this thing has some pretty co…

> you really need the behaviors documented before you start screwing with it. It's very likely this thing has some pretty complex business logic that is absolutely critical to maintain.

Nothing I said suggested otherwise. Absolutely critical for whomever is doing a rewrite to understand everything they can about the application and the business, before writing a single line of code.

Re: Ask HN: Inherited the worst code and tech team I have ever seen. How to fix it?

#102

Post by seasoup »

A lovely knot to unravel!

First, get everything in source control!

Next, make it possible to spin service up locally, pointing at production DB.

Then, get the db running locally.

Then get another server and get cd to that server, including creating the db, schema, and sample data.

Then add tests, run on pr, then code review, then auto deploy to new server.

This should stop the bleeding… no more index-new_2021-test-john_v2.php

Add tests and start deleting code.

Spin up a production server, load balance to it. When confident it works, blow away the old one and redeploy to it. Use the new server for blue/green deployments.

Write more tests for pages, clean up more code.

Pick a framework and use it for new pages, rewrite old pages only when major functionality changes. Don’t worry about multiple jquery versions on a page, lack of mvc, lack of framework, unless overhauling that page.

Re: Ask HN: Inherited the worst code and tech team I have ever seen. How to fix it?

#103

Post by scarab92 »

codingdave wrote: post #13

First off, no, a full rewrite is not only not necessary, but probably the worst possible approach. Do a piece at a time. You will eventually have re-written all the code, but do not ever fall into the trap of a "full re-write". It doesn't work. But before you re-write once line of code - get some testing in place. Or, a lot of testing. If you have end-to-end tests that run through every feature that is currently used…

This approach is a trap.

Management need to know that this needs a rewrite, and a more capable team, and that persuing on aggressive roadmap while things are this bad is impossible.

If they say no, and you try to muddle your way through it anyway, you are setting yourself up to fail.

If they say yes, ask for the extra resources necessary to incrementally rewrite. I would bring in new resources to do this with modern approaches and leave the existing team to support the shrinking legacy codebase.

Re: Ask HN: Inherited the worst code and tech team I have ever seen. How to fix it?

#106

Post by eric4smith »

seasoup wrote: post #102

A lovely knot to unravel! First, get everything in source control! Next, make it possible to spin service up locally, pointing at production DB. Then, get the db running locally. Then get another server and get cd to that server, including creating the db, schema, and sample data. Then add tests, run on pr, then code review, then auto deploy to new server. This should stop the bleeding… no more index-new_2021-test-jo…

Best advice so far.

Re: Ask HN: Inherited the worst code and tech team I have ever seen. How to fix it?

#107

Post by johnorourke »

Create a 'risk register', or 'service schedule' - we use this for building service contracts, where you list out all the things that need to be done or might happen (from backups to support requests), and put a rough cost on them all. We put a min and max cost on each item, and the number of times per year it might happen.

That gives you an annual maintenance cost which will include, say "every 2 years something goes badly wrong with the flargle blargle, and costs $10,000 to fix", or "every 3 days we have to clear out the wurble gurble to stop it all crashing".

Finally, you put together the same thing but for a re-written version, or even with some basic improvements as others have suggested, and hopefully you see a lower total cost of maintenance.

At that point, you can weigh up the cost of either a rewrite or incremental improvements in actual dollars.

Re: Ask HN: Inherited the worst code and tech team I have ever seen. How to fix it?

#108

Post by eric4smith »

20 Million dollars per year.

This should be the thing that starts every conversation. Because IT WORKS for the intended purpose.

Someone else said it. Put everything in source control first.

And just fix things that directly impact that 20 Million dollars a year.

Example, fix speed issues. Fix any javascript issues. Fix anything that will get you to 21 million dollars a year.

Then if you want, you can put together a small sub-team that would be responsible to transitioning certain pages into a framework. But don't rewrite the whole thing.

Re: Ask HN: Inherited the worst code and tech team I have ever seen. How to fix it?

#110

Post by wodenokoto »

Talk with the team. Hear their pain points and propose source control and a test and dev environment.

If you are not managing them directly and they don't want to do those kind of things because it sounds hard or foreign, then you can't really do anything about it.

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