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Discussion on: Trailer Hitches and Software Development

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Kasey Speakman • Edited

I felt this contrast today.

I applied a bug fix in our legacy system. Within an hour, I received an email that a different app was now broken. I had to rollback the fix and now wait on an already-pending enhancement on that app which would make the fix compatible.

Later, I received an email of a blocking bug in our new system. (I hadn't actually worked on that app for a few months now, but was being backup for a dev that was out.) I was able to repro it immediately, and had a fix deployed in about 30 minutes, unblocking the user from their work.

The first system made me appear and feel inept at maintenance. The second system made it seem like bugs were rare and maintenance is easy. I helped build both systems. The latter got the benefit of many years experience.