Is this the “one in ten” time to rewrite?

Question

I\'m very much against rewriting an application if it can be avoided. I understand the rule that 9 times out of 10, it\'s better to refactor, but I\'m in a situation where it m

Answer 1

It sounds like a major job to rewrite the application from scratch, especially since there are no unit tests and you are not the original author. I think that an incremental approach is probably the best, starting with adding unit tests and re-factoring the code so that can be unit tests in order to capture the functionality of the application. Then incrementally improve the app as time goes by instead of putting on hold. A rewrite is often easy to underestimate if you are not the original author as there could business logic in there that is not obvious.