In today’s digital-first environment, most organisations heavily rely on a complex ecosystem of software systems to support core business processes. These systems, often developed in-house over many years, frequently integrate with third-party platforms and evolve organically as business needs change.
This gradual iteration of software systems can lead to increasingly intricate architectures, where existing components are modified, new features are layered on, and underlying technologies are updated.
As a result, managing these systems can become progressively more challenging. Unintended behaviours may emerge, operational costs can escalate, and the overall agility of the business may be compromised.
So, how can organisations optimise their productivity whilst maintaining existing systems? One option to consider is software architecture refactoring.
What Is Software Architecture Refactoring?
Software architecture refactoring is a strategic initiative aimed at improving the structure, performance, scalability and maintainability of a software system, without altering its external behaviour. It involves re-evaluating and redesigning the high-level architecture to reduce technical debt, enhance modularity and improve separation of concerns.
The benefits of this approach are numerous, but include:
- Improved system performance and scalability
- Easier integration of new technologies
- Better alignment with evolving business requirements
If you’re looking to integrate AI into your core processes, adopt more cost-effective software solutions, or replace legacy systems to enhance security, refactoring is a powerful way to address those business needs. It’s not just about addressing immediate challenges, refactoring also provides a robust foundation for an agile product pipeline that supports modern technologies, accelerates implementation, and optimises your route to market.
When to Consider Refactoring the Software Architecture
Whilst the perceived costs or complexity of overhauling your software architecture might appear daunting, maintaining the status quo can be equally, if not more, costly. Legacy systems often introduce bottlenecks, hinder innovation and affect process efficiency. Refactoring your software architecture creates many benefits. Future-proofing your enterprise architecture not only establishes modern software systems that provide the foundation for better business flexibility but also gives you the opportunity to refactor workflows and procedures in an agile and cost-effective manner.
So, how do you know if refactoring is the right strategy for your business?
Although there are many reasons that refactoring should be considered, some of the key indicators are:
- Onboarding challenges: If new developers or administrators require extensive time to understand your system, it suggests excessive complexity.
- Tightly coupled dependencies: If simple changes trigger widespread impacts across systems, it indicates poor modularity.
Refactoring is often best initiated at strategic junctures such as during cloud migration initiatives or the implementation of new technology stacks. These moments provide a valuable opportunity to realign systems with evolving business goals and technological advancements.
What is the refactoring process?
System refactoring is the strategic process of redesigning and improving an organisation’s overall software and systems architecture to better align with current goals, technologies, and operational needs, without disrupting core functionality. The following stages are critical in applying a successful software transformation:
1. Architectural Assessment
The first stage is to analyse the enterprise architecture, understand the system landscape and review any architecture decision records. Identifying the pain points in the architecture will allow you to focus on the areas where the most benefit in re-engineering and refactoring will occur.
2. Goal Definition
The next stage is to define your goals and objectives for the refactoring program. This is a critical step, and metrics may include performance increase, scalability or maintainability.
3. Roadmap Development
Having a roadmap for your software refactoring will help mitigate disruption to essential services. Generating a framework against which the required goals can be carried out will allow a program of continuous improvement to be made based on priority and results achieved.
4. Stakeholder Alignment
Stage four is to ensure transparent communication and co-ordination of the refactoring process. Ensuring the process owners, QA and DevOps teams are kept up to date is essential to ensure alignment and smooth execution.
5. Controlled Implementation
Finally, it is important to deploy changes iteratively, using parallel systems for testing and validation. This approach minimises risk and provides measurable insights into performance gains.
How can eg technology help?
eg technology has extensive experience in developing and maintaining complex software systems. We have helped our clients maintain and refactor critical architectures leading to more efficient and cost-effective platforms.
Our software engineers can carry out an architectural review to analyse your existing software systems landscape and can propose different options for refactoring based on your immediate and long-term needs.
If you would like to find out more and chat through your system transformation process with one of our experts, please get in touch. We would be more than happy to discuss your project and how we could optimise your software systems.
Contact us via email on design@egtechnology.co.uk, by giving us a call on +44 01223 813184, or by clicking here.
