Decoupling, Refactoring, Testing and Other Improvements to your Craft

"I'm scared of that file, it does EVERYTHING!"
"That file has changed 77 times in the last month, I have no idea about what it is doing"
"This file touches everything, I'm not changing it"

Do you ever feel trepidation about modifying a file? Do you fear that making a change might break something and you'd have no idea? This session is about from-the-trenches-experience refactoring, breaking dependencies, and getting tests in place. This is NOT the idealistic Test-Driven Development (TDD) that we all want to do, but how to add characterization tests after the fact - after the code has decayed, and is reeking of code smells. Learn about the essential resources, plug-ins, frameworks, and methodologies that you need to have to regain control of your code and your sanity.