Code Refactor

SITUATION

AOL’s unique business model combines Internet access with exclusive content and services.  When the AOL subscriber base was at its peak, the company was serving content to a diverse group of 30 million users.  In order to provide exclusive content for their enormous number of subscribers, AOL acquired a number of smaller companies that provided unique services.  In order to realize the full value of these acquisitions, each purchase had to be integrated into AOL’s existing technical infrastructure.

Digital Foundry worked with AOL to integrate and realign an acquisition that posed specific challenges: Spinner Media.  In this case, AOL had found that they lacked the in-depth technical knowledge of the code base they needed to make the best use of the technology.

AOL decided to bring in a domain expert to evaluate the new technology, overhaul the code if necessary, and integrate it with AOL’s existing infrastructure.  Digital Foundry’s wide range of technical expertise made them an ideal partner for the project.

SOLUTION

In order to make the Spinner Media technology available to AOL, Digital Foundry recommended a project realignment strategy.  The realignment process begins with a close evaluation of the code base so that Digital Foundry could recommend fixes and refactoring that would bring the project into line with AOL’s goals and enhance the utility of the code in the context of AOL’s existing infrastructure. 

In order to align the Spinner Media technology with AOL, Digital Foundry needed to get an accurate assessment of AOL’s goals and technology platform.  AOL provided access to stakeholders, users, and internal IT / security teams to provide Digital Foundry with a clear idea of the standards the Spinner code must be refactored to meet.

This approach—a comprehensive code review of both the new code and the existing infrastructure—allowed Digital Foundry to provide a complete assessment of the changes that would be necessary to align the Spinner Media technology with AOL’s goals and standards.  In addition to making recommendations regarding technology integration, Digital Foundry was able to address concerns regarding scalability, efficiency, and usability.

RESULTS

Through close collaboration with AOL stakeholders, Digital Foundry helped AOL:

• Identify the goal state for the new technology. After cataloguing AOL’s requirements, Digital Foundry had a thorough understanding of how the project needed to be refactored as well as a series of benchmarks that could be used to measure the project’s success.
• Analyze the Spinner source code with AOL security and IT specifications in mind. This ensured that we could pull apart the existing source code and redevelop it to alleviate the gaps we found during the analysis.
• Refactor the existing source code. We provided a new source code base that met AOL stakeholder requirements. The new code was well documented so that AOL was in a better position to maintain it.