When to Rewrite vs Refactor
When to Rewrite vs Refactor
Research shows that rewrites fail 67 to 79 percent of the time. The median timeline is 16 months with costs between $1.8M and $4.5M. If you're considering a rewrite, you're probably better off refactoring incrementally. Use the Strangler Extraction pattern. Form a team from existing employees. Define a clean interface. Build the new module as a standalone unit.
What else should leaders know about When to Rewrite vs Refactor?
Route traffic through a proxy. Cut the old code. Each extraction is a finite project with a hard deadline. The exception: when the current architecture prevents any further development and the cost of incremental extraction exceeds the cost of a rewrite. This is rare. Most teams that think they need a rewrite just need better boundaries.
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