The step before the "easy change" is "make change easy". This usually includes refactoring and paying off technical debt. Anecdote from one great programmer I

The step before the "easy change" is "make change easy". This usually includes refactoring and paying off technical debt. Anecdote from one great programmer I know: When he fixed a single bug, it often came split into multiple commits. First, a few commits refactoring and cleaning up things. Then one tiny commit fixing the bug. Finally, one more commit removing now-obsolete stuff.