Most every company has that one product. The project that’s consistently brought in revenue over many years. But it’s also the one that shows its age, and might not be enjoyable to work with. Sure, the runtime says Java 8 or above, but it feels like something from a different era. And rarely do you find the time or energy to do something about it.

In this talk we will iteratively modernize such an application, mostly through automation with OpenRewrite. We will go through various aspects such as modernizing tests, performing upgrades, fixing code quality issues, and resolving security findings. We will also introduce nudges to gradually improve the code quality and architecture, such that your project will improve over time.

Walk away with an iterative plan you can replicate, no matter if your project is five or fifteen years old, to rediscover the joy in working with your project.