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6
7# Renaming features
8
9Sometimes the business asks to change the name of a feature. Broadly speaking, there are 2 approaches to that task. They basically trade between immediate effort and future complexity/bug risk:
10
11- Complete, rename everything in the repository.
12  - Pros: does not increase code complexity.
13  - Cons: more work to execute, and higher risk of immediate bugs.
14- Façade, rename as little as possible; only the user-facing content like interfaces,
15  documentation, error messages, and so on.
16  - Pros: less work to execute.
17  - Cons: increases code complexity, creating higher risk of future bugs.
18
19## When to choose the façade approach
20
21The more of the following that are true, the more likely you should choose the façade approach:
22
23- You are not confident the new name is permanent.
24- The feature is susceptible to bugs (large, complex, needing refactor, etc).
25- The renaming is difficult to review (feature spans many lines, files, or repositories).
26- The renaming is disruptive in some way (database table renaming).
27
28## Consider a façade-first approach
29
30The façade approach is not necessarily a final step. It can (and possibly *should*) be treated as the first step, where later iterations accomplish the complete rename.
31