Shipping into old code without breaking it
L'Étudiant
L'Étudiant · 2021 - 2023
A student-guidance platform in daily use. Two years shipping features into an ageing Rails codebase without breaking what was already there.
L'Étudiant connects prospective students with people already enrolled, so they can get an honest opinion on a school. It is a consumer product: whatever ships is used the same day, and a regression shows immediately.
01The constraint
The product ran on an old, complex codebase carrying real technical debt. Adding features to that kind of code without breaking anything is the hardest exercise in the job. It is also the first thing asked of anyone joining a team.
02What I shipped
Back-end and API in Ruby on Rails, web interfaces in React and Next, mobile app in React Native. Review system, guidance flows, matching. Always working with the existing code rather than around it.
03Key points
- Full-stack development (Rails, React / Next)
- Mobile app (React Native)
- Review system & guidance paths
- Changes on legacy, no regressions
Result : Two years of features shipped and maintained on a product in daily use, inside an ageing codebase, with no production regression.