Term of the Moment
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Definition: program maintenance
Updating applications to reflect changes in the organization's business or to adapt to new operating environments. Although maintaining old programs written by ex-employees is often a lot more difficult than writing new ones, the task is usually given to junior programmers because the most talented professionals in IT want the creative jobs.
Even Their Own Programs
Programmers are very creative in developing program logic, but unfortunately many are loathe to thoroughly document their code. Even if they do, they may not describe functions carefully. Making changes to one's own program written years ago can be time consuming and placed in the "royal pain" category. See program documentation.
The Real World of Program Maintenance
Even Their Own Programs
Programmers are very creative in developing program logic, but unfortunately many are loathe to thoroughly document their code. Even if they do, they may not describe functions carefully. Making changes to one's own program written years ago can be time consuming and placed in the "royal pain" category. See program documentation.
Undocumented programs are a huge problem, and this commentary from PROCASE Corporation got right to the point. The company's SMARTsystem program created a flowchart from source code in order to decipher the logic.