“Every project plan should try something new otherwise it is boring.”

NP and I started figuring out what the legacy code does. First we started writing learning tests. First we copied the legacy code and made sure it worked. Then we decided to try something new. We decided to delete the existing code until we get to the revealing part. That worked great, it felt good deleting that code and quickly we discover what was needed to make our learning test pass.

Michelangelo was telling the literal truth when he explained that his principle accomplishment was removing unnecessary stone to get to the piece of beauty. We found the same pattern works to get into the key point of a legacy code too.