I also work on such systems. Some parts are newer, some are older. How messy the code is don't just a matter of age, but more like who touched it.
I agree that care and testing are important things. Many will not care and just add the same couple lines here and there dozens of times in a fear-driven development, making things worse. They will not even create a new function, not to mention cleaning up around. Why? Usually not because they think it needs planning and authorization to do a proper job.
I still think I (or anyone else) don't need any authorization to do the work the way, I think it should be done. The PO cannot tell me, how I should implement the feature. But I know people who think differently. The most extreme was someone, who didn't even fix the typo "Hanlder", because the PO made the typo in the title of a user story, so he helped it almost slipping into our codebase. (Code reviews are cool)
How’s it going, I'm a Adam, a Full-Stack Engineer, actively searching for work. I'm all about JavaScript. And Frontend but don't let that fool you - I've also got some serious Backend skills.
Location
City of Bath, UK 🇬🇧
Education
10 plus years* active enterprise development experience and a Fine art degree 🎨
I also work on such systems. Some parts are newer, some are older. How messy the code is don't just a matter of age, but more like who touched it.
I agree that care and testing are important things. Many will not care and just add the same couple lines here and there dozens of times in a fear-driven development, making things worse. They will not even create a new function, not to mention cleaning up around. Why? Usually not because they think it needs planning and authorization to do a proper job.
I still think I (or anyone else) don't need any authorization to do the work the way, I think it should be done. The PO cannot tell me, how I should implement the feature. But I know people who think differently. The most extreme was someone, who didn't even fix the typo "Hanlder", because the PO made the typo in the title of a user story, so he helped it almost slipping into our codebase. (Code reviews are cool)
And that's why pushing back is so important. Thanks for sharing this post it's a topic very close to home for many I'm sure.