Original posted on Substack

Alright folks, you feel it right? That urge to open the metaphorical windows on your codebase, shake out the dust bunnies from your pom.xml, and maybe, just maybe, tackle that tech debt monster lurking in the corner. 🧟‍♂️ It's Spring Cleaning season, developer edition!

This year, let's talk about two kinds of cleaning:

  1. The Essential Scrub-Down: Getting our actual code, dependencies, and tests looking sharp. ✨
  2. The Big Question: Is our trusty old framework (yeah, often Spring/Spring Boot) still the best fit for the cloud-native, fast-paced world we live in? 🤔 Might a switch to something like Quarkus be the real deep clean we need?

No framework wars here, promise! Just pragmatic tips for boosting productivity and making our Java lives better. Let's dive in!

The Essential Housekeeping: Scrubbing the Codebase 🧼

First things first, let's tidy up what we've got. Ignoring this is like slapping new paint on a crumbling wall.

1. Let's Face It: Tackling Tech Debt 😅

  • What it is: All those "TODO: fix later", rushed implementations, and outdated patterns slowing you down.
  • Why now? It compounds! Ignoring it just makes future development slower and buggier. Spring is a great time for a fresh start.
  • Action Plan:
    • Spot it: Use tools like SonarQube, Checkstyle, or just good ol' code reviews. Ask the team: "What slows us down the most?"
    • Budget time: Seriously, schedule it. A "Tech Debt Tuesday," dedicate story points, use the Boy Scout Rule ("leave it cleaner than you found it"). Small steps count!
    • Show progress: Make tech debt reduction visible (dashboards, sprint goals). It helps justify the effort.

2. Dependency Decluttering Party! 🎉

  • The Mess: Bloated pom.xml/build.gradle, unused libs, ancient versions, scary CVEs hiding in transitive dependencies. Increases build times, JAR/WAR sizes, and security risks.
  • Why now? Security, security, security! Plus, smaller artifacts = faster builds/deploys = happier devs & lower cloud bills. 💸
  • Action Plan:
    • Analyze: mvn dependency:analyze is your friend! gradle dependencies too. Use Snyk, OWASP Dependency-Check, or Dependabot/Renovate to find vulnerabilities and manage updates.
    • Update wisely: Patch critical CVEs ASAP. Test updates! Things break.
    • Trim it: Ruthlessly remove unused dependencies. Do you really need that giant Apache Commons library for one utility function?

3. Pruning Dead Code ✂️

  • The Ghost Code: Old feature flags, commented-out blocks from 2019, experiments that went nowhere. It confuses everyone and adds zero value.
  • Why now? It's noise! Removing it makes the codebase smaller, easier to grasp, and safer to refactor.
  • Action Plan:
    • Coverage clues: Test coverage tools can hint at unused sections (but aren't definitive).
    • Static analysis: Some tools spot unreachable code.
    • Log & Observe: Not sure? Add logging. Monitor for a while. Then delete with confidence (thanks, Git! 🙏).

4. Refactoring Dojo 🥋

  • The Goal: Improve the structure and maybe performance of code that's actually used.
  • Why now? Clean code = maintainable code. Bottlenecks = unhappy users/high costs.
  • Action Plan:
    • Find bottlenecks: Don't guess! Profile your app under load (JProfiler, VisualVM, async-profiler are great).
    • SOLIDify: Apply SOLID principles. Makes code modular, testable, understandable. Future you will thank you.
    • Readability counts: Clear names > clever code. Short methods > long monsters. Add comments why, not what.
    • Check algorithms: Sometimes a LinkedList should be an ArrayList, or a nested loop needs rethinking. Big wins hide here!

5. Test Suite Spa Day 🧖‍♀️

  • Your Safety Net: Good tests let you clean without fear.
  • Why now? Flaky tests kill trust. Slow tests kill productivity. Bad tests give false confidence.
  • Action Plan:
    • Fix the flakes: Hunt down those tests that randomly fail. Fix 'em or delete 'em.
    • Speed 'em up: Profile test runs. Mock properly. Run in parallel.
    • Meaningful coverage: Test the important logic, not just getters/setters for a vanity metric. Delete useless tests!

The Bigger Clean-Up: Is Your Foundation Future-Proof? 🤔

Okay, codebase looking tidier? Awesome! Now for the bigger question... is the foundation still right? For many of us, that foundation is Spring Boot. It's done amazing things for Java! But the cloud, Kubernetes, and serverless changed the game.

Ask yourself honestly:

  • Startup Slowdown? 🐌 How long does your app take to boot? In K8s/serverless, slow starts mean slow scaling and delayed requests.
  • Memory Hog? 🐷 How much RAM does your idle service eat? Cloud memory isn't free! Reflection-heavy frameworks can be thirsty.
  • Dev Loop Lag? ⏳ Slow builds? Long waits for changes to appear? Developer happiness matters!
  • Native Curious? ✨ Thinking about GraalVM native images for insane speed and tiny footprints? How easy is that with your current stack?

If these questions hit a nerve, maybe it's time for a more radical spring clean: considering a modern, cloud-native Java framework.

Hello, Quarkus! 👋 The Cloud-Native Tune-Up

Quarkus is designed from the ground up for Kubernetes, serverless, and GraalVM. It's not just an alternative; it's a different philosophy.

  • 🚀 Supersonic Subatomic Java: Real talk – it starts FAST and uses way less memory. It does magic at build time (minimizing reflection, pre-wiring) so the runtime is lean.
  • 😎 Developer Joy: Live coding! Change code, hit refresh, see changes almost instantly. No restarts needed for most things. Plus great extensions for databases (Panache rocks!), messaging, etc.
  • 🥇 Native Ready: Built for GraalVM native compilation. Getting those tiny, fast native executables is a core feature, not an afterthought.
  • ☁️ Kubernetes Native: Small footprint + fast startup = perfect for containers and orchestration. Scales efficiently, saves $$$.

Migrating? It's Work, But...

Let's be real: switching frameworks isn't a weekend project. You'll learn new APIs (often standard Jakarta EE / MicroProfile, which helps!) and Quarkus's build-time magic.

BUT, the payoff can be huge: lower cloud bills, faster apps, happier devs.

  • Start small: Try it on a new microservice first.
  • Leverage standards: Use your existing JAX-RS, CDI, JPA knowledge.
  • Target the pain: Migrate services where startup/memory really hurts.

Level Up Your Cleaning with AI & Automation 🤖

Cleaning isn't just manual labor anymore!

  • AI Assistants: GitHub Copilot, Tabnine, CodeWhisperer... they can write boilerplate, suggest refactorings, generate tests, even explain code! Use them to speed up the boring parts of cleaning.
  • DIY AI Helpers (Langchain4j): Feeling adventurous? Use libraries like Langchain4j to build custom AI tools. Imagine an LLM analyzing your specific tech debt patterns or generating documentation tailored to your project! 🤯
  • Automation Army: CI/CD is non-negotiable. Automate tests, security scans (snyk test, dependency-check), builds, deployments (to K8s!). Keep things clean automatically. Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Pulumi) keeps environments consistent.

Wrap-up: Tidy Code, Happy Life! 😄

"Spring Cleaning" for developers means both tending our code garden and checking if the garden plot itself (our framework!) is still serving us well.

Tackle that tech debt, prune those dependencies, refactor with purpose, and keep those tests healthy. And don't be afraid to question your foundations – maybe a modern stack like Quarkus is the key to unlocking major improvements in performance, cost, and developer velocity.

Whatever you do, take some action this spring to make your corner of the coding world a little cleaner and more efficient.

What are your top Java spring cleaning tips or pain points? Share them in the comments below! 👇