Chapter 1. Meet the Mikado Method
This chapter covers
- A description of the Mikado Method
- The benefits of the method
- Common situations where it works
How many times have you tried to fix something in your codebase, breaking a sweat as the changes spiral out of control? How many times has your development work started not with an empty codebase, but with an inherited system that includes the strange constraints of the previous team? You might hope to look over the documentation left behind, and to run the automatic tests and see if they pass, but what happens if there aren’t any tests left behind, and all that’s left is the source code? How can you understand what’s going on, and how can you make big changes to code without ending up with the entire engine in pieces on the floor?
This is the perfect moment for the Mikado Method to enter the scene. It’s a structured way to make significant changes to complex systems. Rather than getting caught up in the complexity of moving parts, analyzing the entire system in one large chunk, the Mikado Method lets you handle complex code a bit like you’d move furniture around in your home, one piece at a time. In the same way that you might need to move your table to fit in your sofa, and move the easy chair before you can move the table, you need to change and move methods and classes around before you can fit new functionality into your complex codebase. You need to do it one step at a time.