Leaving a Good Legacy
Why Bother Leaving a Good Legacy?
You may be asking yourself a question such as:
"If I spend time and money worrying about what happens in the distant future, might I reduce my chances of success in the short term?"
This is, of course, true. If a project fails in the short term, then it will never become a legacy system. Therefore, you need to be careful in balancing maintainability in the long term with success in the short term – but don't go to extremes at either end.
However, there are many good reasons to worry about leaving a good legacy:
You may be in your current job a lot longer than you anticipate.
You may be asked to return to this job/project for a new phase.
We live in a small world (particularly if you work in a specific business sector within IT) and your reputation can suffer if you leave behind an unmaintainable mess.
Making sure you create a quality system for the long term is also likely to make sure it is a quality system overall. Maintainable systems tend...
