--- In extremeprogramming <at> yahoogroups.com, Keith Ray <keithray <at> m...>
wrote:
>
> chris wrote "Granted, you may have to ask your project
> management for a 1 week refactoring iteration for big refactorings.
> In fact, it might be a good idea to schedule a cleanup iteration from
> the get-go (say after 3 or 4 iterations"

Hmm, there's something about the idea that a development team would
have to ask permission from someone to execute some technical best
practice (as I believe design by refactoring to be) that's quite
worrying. Is the thought that this activity is so conspicuously of
questionable value that just going ahead and doing it anyway would
likely lead to trouble? In which case, donesn't the team need to think
again? 

If an activity is clearly valuable, why would you need permission to
do the right thing? And if the value isn't clear, make it so.

The team that I currently work with used to (several years ago) do
something like the second part, with scheduled refactoring iterations,
and there was continual argument with the business about why they
should pay for such a thing. That arrangement didn't last long, and
nor should it have. These days large refactorings (sometimes several
pair-iterations in size) still go on here, but they are scheduled in
as tasks in the usual way as and when required. And they are paid for
happily because they are clearly justfied as enablers for new (or even
new _kinds_ of) functionality in the iteration or so following. 

And so there's no concept of any sort of "cleanup"---another worrying
idea: are you planning to spend three or four iterations making the
code dirty, so that it will need cleaning? If so, why?

Keith

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