Clean Code in Practice: Cleaning Up a Legacy OrderService Step by Step
The safe way to clean up legacy code is to first pin the current behavior with a small seam and characterization tests, then make every step a separate commit and keep behavior changes in their own fix commits. The post cleans up the 609-line OrderService in 16 commits with green tests at every commit; the highest Cognitive Complexity drops from 92 to 10, and the smells left on purpose are listed with their reasons.
7 Nov 2026
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14 min
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