Comment by hikarudo
3 days ago
> Once you reach this stage, the only escape is to first cover everything with tests and then meticulously fix bugs
The exact same approach is recommended in the book "Working effectively with legacy code" by Michael Feathers, with several techniques on how to do it. He describes legacy code as 'code with no tests'.
"Show me the incentives, and I will show you the outcomes" - Charlie Munger
I once worked in a shop where we had high and inflexible test coverage requirements. Developers eventually figured out that you could run a bunch of random scenarios and then `assert true` in the finally clause of the exception handler. Eventually you'd be guaranteed to cover enough to get by that gate.
Pushing back on that practice led to a management fight about feature velocity and externally publicized deadlines.