How can I make refactoring a priority for my team?

Posted by Joseph Garland on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by Joseph Garland
Published on 2011-05-17T19:59:28Z Indexed on 2014/06/12 9:40 UTC
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refactoring

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The codebase I work with daily has no automated tests, inconsistent naming and tons of comments like "Why is this here?", "Not sure if this is needed" or "This method isn't named right" and the code is littered with "Changelogs" despite the fact we use source control. Suffice it to say, our codebase could use refactoring.

We always have tasks to fix bugs or add new features, so no time is put aside to refactor code to be better and more modular, and it doesn't seem to be a high priority.

How can I demonstrate the value of refactoring such that it gets added to our task lists? Is it worth it to just refactor as I go, asking for forgiveness rather than permission?

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