Legacy projects

Hi! This blog post is mainly for me to remind myself that I can sometimes work with legacy projects.

Beginning

Recently in my work, I changed project. The one that has the bleeding edge technologies has ended. I was assigned to work on another one. The problem was that the new one wasn’t so bleeding - actually, I was the other way around. It was so called Legacy. The word feared by so many developers.

I thought I have two options:

  1. Start complaining about it and be miserable. Do not work with full enthusiasm.

  2. Start working with a legacy codebase, try to update it and learn how much impact can have your own decisions.

At first, I was in phase one. I started telling myself how miserable I was because of receiving such old project. I started complaining about everything.

Realization

But after some time I realized that which project I will get is outside my control. What is inside my control is how I respond to this circumstance.

Am I gonna complain or do the work? I decided to give my best and start changing piece by piece this legacy codebase. Learning from this experience and doing the work. Like software craftsman will do.

It wasn’t the easiest task - especially when I have so many other new projects that I could work on.

Summary

If you ever happened to be in a situation where you are in a legacy project - do the work. Do not fear legacy projects.