Refactoring without tests should be fine
Refactoring, the practice of making small, incremental changes to improve the structure of code, has often been linked to testing and their importance has been emphasized in software development.
However, in this article, author Matthias Noback questions the necessity of tests during refactoring. He argues that while tests can be helpful in detecting errors, oftentimes, refactoring measures are straightforward and unlikely to introduce errors—making tests less necessary.
He also deals with some common problems that can arise during the process and shares his own experiences on the matter.