delzarsolutionsllc Refactoring
Behavior stays. Structure moves. If you need a behavior change, stop and split the work.
Method
- Characterize current behavior with tests you can run. If none exist, add characterization tests first.
- Name the smell: duplication, feature envy, god object, shotgun surgery, leaky abstraction.
- Pick the smallest mechanical move that pays down that smell (extract, inline, move, rename).
- Keep the diff in one theme. Do not mix renames with logic changes.
- Run the tests after every move. A red test means you changed behavior — revert that step.
Guardrails
- Public APIs keep their signatures unless the task is explicitly a breaking change.
- Do not "improve" control flow you do not have tests for.
- Delete dead code only when you can prove nothing imports it.
- Comments that restate the code go; comments that record a constraint stay.
Output
What moved, what is now easier, the test command that stayed green, and any follow-up that was tempting but out of scope.