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We often talk about building new systems, but we rarely talk about the reality of living with them 5 years later. Every engineering decision we make today eventually becomes "legacy," and without a clear approach to maintenance, even the best services can become a burden.

Drawing from over five years of working with legacy systems and overhauling them, I’ve realized that long-term success isn't about finding the "perfect" architecture but how we handle the inevitable friction of aging code. In this 15-minute session, I’ll share a few practical tips for keeping services maintainable without the drama. We’ll explore the hidden cost of clever solutions, the impact of tech adventures that go sideways, and the small habits that determine whether a system remains manageable or becomes a nightmare for the people inheriting it.

Devoxx

A senior software engineer at Elastic shares practical tips for working with legacy systems, centered on the concept of maintainability. The talk covers four key areas: sticking to existing conventions even if imperfect, being cautious about introducing new tools, incrementally adding tests and integrating them into CI/CD and code review, and documenting not just the current state but the historical reasoning behind decisions. Real-world examples illustrate how consistency, testing discipline, and contextual documentation reduce the mental burden of maintaining aging codebases.

Building a legacy: The art of crafting maintainable systems by Saman Nourkhalaj