Renaming features

Sometimes the business asks to change the name of a feature. Broadly speaking, there are 2 approaches to that task. They basically trade between immediate effort and future complexity/bug risk:

  • Complete, rename everything in the repository.
    • Pros: does not increase code complexity.
    • Cons: more work to execute, and higher risk of immediate bugs.
  • Façade, rename as little as possible; only the user-facing content like interfaces, documentation, error messages, etc.
    • Pros: less work to execute.
    • Cons: increases code complexity, creating higher risk of future bugs.

When to choose the façade approach

The more of the following that are true, the more likely you should choose the façade approach:

  • You are not confident the new name is permanent.
  • The feature is susceptible to bugs (large, complex, needing refactor, etc).
  • The renaming is difficult to review (feature spans many lines, files, or repositories).
  • The renaming is disruptive in some way (database table renaming).

Consider a façade-first approach

The façade approach is not necessarily a final step. It can (and possibly should) be treated as the first step, where later iterations accomplish the complete rename.