97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know

Chapter 23. Clever Code Is Hard to Maintain

David Wood

DEVELOPERS ARE OFTEN ASKED TO CREATE MIRACLES. They must find clever ways to make today's project code work with yesterday's antiquated legacy software containing multiple patches. And through skill and ingenuity, they may create numerous lines of clever code that finally get the job done. But clever code may only create future maintenance problems due to the code's length and complexity. There may be a better way.

If you are a project manager new to software development, don't be afraid to let developers explore new languages and development tools. Allow them this freedom, because this is how they discover innovative ways to improve their coding practices and results. They may be able to design a software solution to your legacy interface problem that is faster and has fewer lines of code to test and maintain. This is certainly an advantage to your project.

There are innovative new programming languages that can perform the same functions as your current ones with substantially fewer lines of code. This is valuable in that a simpler code structure is easier to test, can be self-defining, is smaller to store, and is easier to maintain.

Obviously, there are some concerns about adding new languages and platforms within your organization. Will this new code truly solve the problem for the current software or upgrade under development? ...