{"id":1162,"date":"2026-03-28T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/?p=1162"},"modified":"2026-06-08T20:24:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T20:24:23","slug":"when-i-recommend-a-rewrite-and-when-i-absolutely-don-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/03\/28\/when-i-recommend-a-rewrite-and-when-i-absolutely-don-t\/","title":{"rendered":"When I Recommend a Rewrite, and When I Absolutely Don&#8217;t"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I do recommend rewrites sometimes. Just not nearly as often as people hope I will.<\/p>\n<p>Most rewrite discussions start from pain, not clarity. The system is annoying, the code is messy, delivery is slow, and everybody wants the emotional relief of starting again. I understand that impulse. But in consulting work, &#8220;I am tired of this codebase&#8221; is not the same thing as &#8220;a rewrite is the best decision.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>When I absolutely do not recommend a rewrite<\/h2>\n<p>I do not recommend a rewrite when the real problems are things a rewrite will not solve.<\/p>\n<p>That usually means:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>poor product decisions<\/li>\n<li>weak ownership<\/li>\n<li>slow review and release processes<\/li>\n<li>missing tests and observability<\/li>\n<li>confused business rules<\/li>\n<li>a team that has not really understood the current system yet<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If those are the issues, then rebuilding the software usually just recreates the same mess in a newer stack.<\/p>\n<p>I also do not recommend a rewrite when the business cannot tolerate a long, risky period of duplicated effort. If the team needs continuous delivery, predictable change, and stable operations, then a big-bang rebuild is often the wrong shape of work.<\/p>\n<p>And I definitely do not recommend a rewrite just because the code looks old. Old is not the same thing as broken.<\/p>\n<h2>When I do recommend a rewrite<\/h2>\n<p>I recommend a rewrite when the current platform is genuinely boxed in and the team can explain why incremental replacement is not enough.<\/p>\n<p>That usually involves some combination of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>unsupported or unpatchable runtime dependencies<\/li>\n<li>architecture that makes safe change nearly impossible<\/li>\n<li>deployment or security posture that is no longer acceptable<\/li>\n<li>infrastructure constraints that block the business from moving<\/li>\n<li>cost of incremental change that is consistently worse than replacement<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Even then, I still want a serious plan.<\/p>\n<p>If a team wants me to back a rewrite, I want to know:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>what problem this solves in business terms<\/li>\n<li>which parts must be rebuilt and which do not<\/li>\n<li>how critical behaviour will be preserved<\/li>\n<li>how migration risk will be controlled<\/li>\n<li>how the team avoids building a second messy system with better branding<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If those answers are vague, I assume the rewrite case is weak.<\/p>\n<h2>What I usually push for instead<\/h2>\n<p>Most of the time, the right answer is controlled replacement rather than a full reset.<\/p>\n<p>That might mean:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>replacing one bounded subsystem first<\/li>\n<li>wrapping unstable internals behind cleaner APIs<\/li>\n<li>separating the highest-risk workflows before anything else<\/li>\n<li>improving deployment, testing, and observability before touching architecture<\/li>\n<li>removing the worst operational pain before chasing elegance<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That work is less exciting than announcing a rewrite. It is also usually more responsible.<\/p>\n<h2>My view<\/h2>\n<p>I recommend rewrites when the current system is genuinely beyond safe or sensible improvement.<\/p>\n<p>I absolutely do not recommend them when the team is really trying to escape frustration, poor discipline, or years of unclear decisions.<\/p>\n<p>That distinction matters.<\/p>\n<p>Because a rewrite can be the right call.<\/p>\n<p>But most of the time, disciplined change beats a dramatic restart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am usually against full rewrites, but not always. The real question is whether the current system is beyond safe improvement or whether the team is just frustrated with it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13,25],"tags":[43,45,47,46],"class_list":["post-1162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-programming","category-software-engineer","tag-consulting","tag-legacy-systems","tag-rewrites","tag-software-architecture"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>When I Recommend a Rewrite, and When I Absolutely Don&#039;t - wade.one<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/03\/28\/when-i-recommend-a-rewrite-and-when-i-absolutely-don-t\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When I Recommend a Rewrite, and When I Absolutely Don&#039;t - wade.one\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I am usually against full rewrites, but not always. 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