That's certainly true when you have a working product that just needs incremental work.
When you inherit something that doesn't work, then you really do need to refactor "everything." Most likely, problems arise from incorrect low level assumptions or design decisions.
What do I mean by quoting "everything?" This is the kind of refactoring that feels like you're refactoring everything, but in reality, you're still keeping higher-level assumptions and design decisions.
In this case, if you don't refactor away the mistakes that lead to something that doesn't work, then you'll never have something that works.
(BTW, I know this from personal experience, I had to refactor a shipping product shortly after starting the job because the shipping product did not work. Now I'm the lead architect on the product.)
That's certainly true when you have a working product that just needs incremental work.
When you inherit something that doesn't work, then you really do need to refactor "everything." Most likely, problems arise from incorrect low level assumptions or design decisions.
What do I mean by quoting "everything?" This is the kind of refactoring that feels like you're refactoring everything, but in reality, you're still keeping higher-level assumptions and design decisions.
In this case, if you don't refactor away the mistakes that lead to something that doesn't work, then you'll never have something that works.
(BTW, I know this from personal experience, I had to refactor a shipping product shortly after starting the job because the shipping product did not work. Now I'm the lead architect on the product.)