What is Refactoring? — UK Software Development Guide
Direct Answer
Refactoring is the process of restructuring existing code without changing its external behaviour. The goal is to improve code quality — making it more readable, maintainable, testable, and efficient — without adding new features or fixing bugs. Refactoring is typically described as "changing how the code works internally without changing what it does externally."
Refactoring in the UK
Refactoring has direct UK business value. The primary benefit is reducing technical debt interest — legacy UK software that has never been refactored accumulates costs at 60–80% of the engineering budget in maintenance overhead. UK GDPR creates specific refactoring urgency: legacy code with insecure data handling, missing encryption, or inadequate access controls must be refactored to meet Article 32 requirements. Cyber Essentials patch management is easier with well-refactored code where dependencies are clearly isolated.
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