Ax Vestigial Features

I routinely observe projects where developers and users are busy safeguarding countless features that provide absolutely no value to anybody. In many situations people are aware but nobody will do anything about it. In other situations, they may not even know.

Vestigial features sap the efficacy of systems. Take the time to curate metrics to effectively monitor the features of your systems. After a sufficient period of time has elapsed without enough usage to financially justify maintaining a feature, ax it. If your metrics are anywhere close to accurate no one will notice.

Then, take a moment to reflect on how things ended up this way. Was this a feature that outlived its purpose? Or was it something that provided no value to begin with? Tell the story to help others avoid a similar fate.