TL; DR:
- Legacy systems are some of the most real software engineering
- Saying "AI tools don't work here" might be a cop-out
- Someone has to bridge the communication gap, and it might need to be you
- No livestream this week, sorry!
Stuck Maintaining Legacy Code -- Now What?
I saw a post on the ExperiencedDevs subreddit that I think a lot of us can relate to. A developer is the sole maintainer of a legacy .NET application. They're dealing with brittle code, zero test coverage, and a product manager who doesn't seem to understand the challenges. Oh, and to top it all off? The PM is telling leadership that this developer isn't using AI tools and that's why things are slow.
Spoiler: the developer says they ARE using AI tools.
There are a few different angles I want to unpack here, because this scenario hits on so many things at once. Legacy systems. AI tool adoption. And the communication gap between engineers and PMs. Let's get into it.
You can check out my full thoughts on this in the video below:
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