Just the other day I was listening to, i.e. eavesdropping, a conversation between peers where they were trying to decide on what version of Visual Studio.NET their team should migrate to. This team was still using Visual Studio 6 (!!) and wanted to know if they should go to 2005 or 2008. During the conversation the motivation for the upgrade was discussed:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to refactor some of the old [C++] code in C#.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
[OK, now imagine the sound of metal scraping on your fillings. It is that bad.]<\/p>\n
Refactoring\u00a0has been in print since 1999 and has a really clear\u00a0definition<\/a>. I also tend to think it is one of the fundamental skills every software developer should be proficient in. Frankly, I feel if you are not refactoring your code, you are not doing your job. So, why do people in this day and age of our profession still consider a rewrite of old code in a new language refactoring? Just another example of sloppy language and, unfortunately, sloppy thinking. So, to be\u00a0precise<\/a>, here are the definitions of refactoring.<\/p>\n
refactoring (n.<\/em>): a change to made to the internal structure of software to make it easier to understand and cheaper to modify without changing its observable behavior.<\/p>\n
refactoring (v.<\/em>): to restructure software by applying a series of refactorings without changing its observable behavior.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
For those of you who have stumbled upon my rant, here is a short list of things I do\u00a0NOT\u00a0<\/strong>consider refactoring:<\/p>\n
\n
- adding new functionality to the code.<\/li>\n
- changing the design in the absence of automated tests – either unit, functional or acceptance.<\/li>\n
- a separate \u201cstage\u201d in the project you do either after, or before, the \u201creal\u201d work.<\/li>\n
- a replacement, or substitution, for a genuine software design.<\/li>\n
- \u201cfixing things up while you are in there.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Just the other day I was listening to, i.e. eavesdropping, a conversation between peers where they were trying to decide on what version of Visual Studio.NET their team should migrate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[208,25,19,10,6,24,206,26,44,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advanced-practitioners","category-communication","category-design-excellence","category-developers","category-extreme-programming","category-legacy-code","category-practitioners","category-refactoring","category-scrum-master","category-simple-design"],"yoast_head":"\n
A Rewrite is NOT Refactoring! - The Scrum Academy<\/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:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/2008\/08\/14\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Rewrite is NOT Refactoring! - The Scrum Academy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just the other day I was listening to, i.e. eavesdropping, a conversation between peers where they were trying to decide on what version of Visual Studio.NET their team should migrate [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/2008\/08\/14\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Scrum Academy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-08-15T04:32:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-23T07:55:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/vecteezy_business-transformation-change-management-or-transition-to_6402128.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carlton Nettleton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Escrito por\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carlton Nettleton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Tiempo de lectura\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutos\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/es\\\/2008\\\/08\\\/14\\\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/es\\\/2008\\\/08\\\/14\\\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Carlton Nettleton\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/es\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2a0fb199044ecd4af3704c734747fc6a\"},\"headline\":\"A Rewrite is NOT Refactoring!\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-08-15T04:32:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-23T07:55:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/es\\\/2008\\\/08\\\/14\\\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":301,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/es\\\/2008\\\/08\\\/14\\\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2008\\\/08\\\/vecteezy_business-transformation-change-management-or-transition-to_6402128.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Advanced Practitioners\",\"Communication\",\"Design Excellence\",\"Developers\",\"Extreme Programming\",\"Legacy Code\",\"Practitioners\",\"Refactoring\",\"Scrum Master\",\"Simple Design\"],\"inLanguage\":\"es\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/es\\\/2008\\\/08\\\/14\\\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/es\\\/2008\\\/08\\\/14\\\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/es\\\/2008\\\/08\\\/14\\\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\\\/\",\"name\":\"A Rewrite is NOT Refactoring! - The Scrum Academy\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/es\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/es\\\/2008\\\/08\\\/14\\\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/es\\\/2008\\\/08\\\/14\\\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2008\\\/08\\\/vecteezy_business-transformation-change-management-or-transition-to_6402128.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-08-15T04:32:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-23T07:55:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/es\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2a0fb199044ecd4af3704c734747fc6a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/es\\\/2008\\\/08\\\/14\\\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"es\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/es\\\/2008\\\/08\\\/14\\\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"es\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/es\\\/2008\\\/08\\\/14\\\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2008\\\/08\\\/vecteezy_business-transformation-change-management-or-transition-to_6402128.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2008\\\/08\\\/vecteezy_business-transformation-change-management-or-transition-to_6402128.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"Business transformation, change management or transition to better innovative company, improvement and adaptation to new normal concept, smart businessman jump from old to new shiny lightbulb idea\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/es\\\/2008\\\/08\\\/14\\\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/es\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A Rewrite is NOT Refactoring!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/es\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/es\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Scrum Academy\",\"description\":\"Everyone anywhere can do better Scrum\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/es\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"es\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/es\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2a0fb199044ecd4af3704c734747fc6a\",\"name\":\"Carlton Nettleton\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"es\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/6d69c37c349230a49a1ec6c77c21c4b35043de9fbcce8a202d61f707025cd537?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/6d69c37c349230a49a1ec6c77c21c4b35043de9fbcce8a202d61f707025cd537?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/6d69c37c349230a49a1ec6c77c21c4b35043de9fbcce8a202d61f707025cd537?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Carlton Nettleton\"},\"description\":\"My name is Carlton Nettleton and I am the President of Look Forward Consulting. I am an international speaker, trainer and author of the book, Fourteen Observations of Good Scrum Practice and my book has been translated into Spanish. My passion is to share my excitement, enthusiasm and encouragement with teams and organizations as they reach for higher levels of performance and engagement. My business is to help your business grow and flourish.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thescrumacademy.com\\\/es\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Rewrite is NOT Refactoring! - The Scrum Academy","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/2008\/08\/14\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\/","og_locale":"es_ES","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Rewrite is NOT Refactoring! - The Scrum Academy","og_description":"Just the other day I was listening to, i.e. eavesdropping, a conversation between peers where they were trying to decide on what version of Visual Studio.NET their team should migrate [...]","og_url":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/2008\/08\/14\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\/","og_site_name":"The Scrum Academy","article_published_time":"2008-08-15T04:32:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-23T07:55:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":800,"url":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/vecteezy_business-transformation-change-management-or-transition-to_6402128.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Carlton Nettleton","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Escrito por":"Carlton Nettleton","Tiempo de lectura":"2 minutos"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/2008\/08\/14\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/2008\/08\/14\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\/"},"author":{"name":"Carlton Nettleton","@id":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/#\/schema\/person\/2a0fb199044ecd4af3704c734747fc6a"},"headline":"A Rewrite is NOT Refactoring!","datePublished":"2008-08-15T04:32:26+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-23T07:55:20+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/2008\/08\/14\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\/"},"wordCount":301,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/2008\/08\/14\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/vecteezy_business-transformation-change-management-or-transition-to_6402128.jpg","articleSection":["Advanced Practitioners","Communication","Design Excellence","Developers","Extreme Programming","Legacy Code","Practitioners","Refactoring","Scrum Master","Simple Design"],"inLanguage":"es","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/2008\/08\/14\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/2008\/08\/14\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\/","url":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/2008\/08\/14\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\/","name":"A Rewrite is NOT Refactoring! - The Scrum Academy","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/2008\/08\/14\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/2008\/08\/14\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/vecteezy_business-transformation-change-management-or-transition-to_6402128.jpg","datePublished":"2008-08-15T04:32:26+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-23T07:55:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/#\/schema\/person\/2a0fb199044ecd4af3704c734747fc6a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/2008\/08\/14\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"es","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/2008\/08\/14\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"es","@id":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/2008\/08\/14\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/vecteezy_business-transformation-change-management-or-transition-to_6402128.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/vecteezy_business-transformation-change-management-or-transition-to_6402128.jpg","width":1200,"height":800,"caption":"Business transformation, change management or transition to better innovative company, improvement and adaptation to new normal concept, smart businessman jump from old to new shiny lightbulb idea"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/2008\/08\/14\/a-rewrite-is-not-refactoring\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Rewrite is NOT Refactoring!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/#website","url":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/","name":"The Scrum Academy","description":"Everyone anywhere can do better Scrum","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"es"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/#\/schema\/person\/2a0fb199044ecd4af3704c734747fc6a","name":"Carlton Nettleton","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"es","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6d69c37c349230a49a1ec6c77c21c4b35043de9fbcce8a202d61f707025cd537?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6d69c37c349230a49a1ec6c77c21c4b35043de9fbcce8a202d61f707025cd537?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6d69c37c349230a49a1ec6c77c21c4b35043de9fbcce8a202d61f707025cd537?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Carlton Nettleton"},"description":"My name is Carlton Nettleton and I am the President of Look Forward Consulting. I am an international speaker, trainer and author of the book, Fourteen Observations of Good Scrum Practice and my book has been translated into Spanish. My passion is to share my excitement, enthusiasm and encouragement with teams and organizations as they reach for higher levels of performance and engagement. My business is to help your business grow and flourish.","url":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescrumacademy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}