Refactor: Moving Features Between Objects

Overview

These 8 techniques redistribute responsibilities between classes. They address "which class should own this behavior?" — reducing coupling, increasing cohesion, and focusing each class on a single responsibility.

When to Use

• A method uses more data from another class than its own (Feature Envy)
• A class has grown too large with unrelated responsibilities (Large Class, Divergent Change)
• A class is too thin to justify its existence (Lazy Class)
• One change requires edits in many classes (Shotgun Surgery)
• Client code navigates through object chains (Message Chains)

Quick Reference