Spacecraft! The Care and Keeping of a Legacy Application

Embark on a 25-minute allegorical journey through legacy application maintenance in this RailsConf 2022 talk. Follow astronauts aboard the spacecraft Legacy as they navigate the challenges of updating aging infrastructure before encountering feature request asteroids. Explore strategies for assessing, improving, and bullet-proofing Rails applications in need of cosmic maintenance through an easy-to-understand narrative. Learn about optimizing existing tests, mapping critical paths, managing complexity, recovering institutional knowledge, and fostering team collaboration. Gain insights into the care and keeping of legacy applications through this engaging and informative presentation by Annie Lydens and Jenny Allar.

Introduction
Meet Annie Jenny
The spaceship
Chapter 2 The black hole
The pull of the black hole
Assessment to get anywhere
The basics
Step by step
Optimize existing tests
Map the most critical paths
Parts unknown
Important and not important
Complexity earns its keep
Recovering institutional knowledge
Taking ownership
Socialising knowledge
Working as a team
Conclusion