Context
KüchenDesk (Meisterdesk GmbH) is an ERP for kitchen vendors in Germany.
Their SaaS product relied on a 10-year-old frontend codebase that was solely developed by the founder. He wanted to build new features and let the code be maintained by other developers.
Sadly, the codebase had an enormous tech debt that made maintenance and delivery very difficult. It had huge JavaScript files with tens of thousands of lines, globally scoped variables and functions, and an in-house build and bundling process.
I came on board to help them bring the codebase up to speed with contemporary standards and allow work on it to scale. I joined as an external frontend developer, working closely with the company’s backend developer and the founder who wrote the code.
Solution
First, I performed a deep analysis of the codebase to find its biggest pain points. Then I presented them to the customer, along with how they could be solved.
Then I went on to implement solutions, such as refactoring to smaller tightly scoped modules, adding an open source bundler (Parcel) to optimize the build process, and introducing ESLint + Prettier while fixing linting errors.
I also wrote a proof of concept for how to increase code readability, wrote documentation, and created standards for writing E2E tests with Playwright.
As a result of my work, the code became more easily readable and maintainable, and the owner was finally able to onboard new developers and increase delivery.
Reflections
This was a reminder that not all projects use the latest tech stacks, and a reminder of how standards and tools have greatly improved over the years.
Thanks to this project, I brought my experience as a veteran web developer to help bridge the gap between older and current frontend standards.