How often should you refactor?

Question

I had a discussion a few weeks back with some co-workers on refactoring, and I seem to be in a minority that believes \"Refactor early, refactor often\" is a good approach t

Answer 1

There are many views on this topic, some linked to a particular methodology or approach to development. When using TDD, refactor early and often is, as you say, a favoured approach.

In other situations you may refactor as and when needed. For example, when you spot repetitious code.

When following more traditional methods with detailed up-front design, the refactoring may be less often. However, I would recommend not leaving refactoring until the end of a project. Not only will you be likely to introduce problems, potentially post-UAT, it is often also the case that refactoring gets progressively more difficult. For this reason, time constraints on the classic project cause refactoring and extra testing to be dropped and when maintenance kicks in you may have already created a spaghetti-code monster.