Refactoring

Try to mention word “refactoring” to a CEO and what you’re probably going to hear is “why didn’t you think of this during initial development?”. Well, it’s a valid question and there can be at least 2 answers. One will make you look like a fool, another will make you look like a star.

• Fool: I don’t know.
• Star: As a matter of fact I (or my team) has carefully reviewed all the options and considered two different approaches. We decided that based on initial system traffic/load/performance requirements we should go with option 1 (simple but effective) and therefore save 6 man months of development effort (or $90k). We determined that option 1 will serve us well for at least 2 years and allow room for ample growth before considering any changes. Over the last 1.5 years, as expected, option 1 delivered as expected. It’s probably not going to need changes for another 6 to 8 months, but, with some new frameworks or products, 1 developer can refactor the system in just 2 months. The result of this refactoring will give the system another 2 years of steady growth in traffic and users.

You just demonstrated that you saved the company $90k and you’re only asking to invest $30k now to make the system more robust – that’s net savings of $60k, not counting the fact that you delivered the product a few months sooner.

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