Introducing XP—XP Practice 6: Refactoring

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XP Practice 6: Refactoring

XP doesn’t favor large up-front design phases, as waterfall methodologies do, but it does promote design, through the practice of constant refactoring. In Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code (Addison Wesley, 1999), Martin Fowler defines refactoring as "the process of changing a software system in such a way that it doesn’t alter the external behavior of the code yet improves the internal structure." An example of refactoring is moving a section of duplicated code into a method where it could be reused with a simple method call, as opposed to having it proliferated throughout the application.

To facilitate system design without needing to perform it all up front, you should use refactoring techniques. Fowler’s book is a great place to learn about refactoring.