Brian Farn

Creating software can be considered an art form, requiring all of the characteristics associated with an artist, such as creative style. Most artists, however, aren't required to modify their creations after the work has been purchased. Software, on the other hand, needs to be maintained either by its creator or by others if the creator has moved to other responsibilities. The maintainability of software is an increasingly important issue. As industry demand for programmers' skills increases, so does their turnover rate within a company, thus diminishing the likelihood of the original programmer's being available when a problem arises or when the product needs to be enhanced. Also, a programmer who produces volumes of code may need some time to refamiliarize him- or herself with code that was written only a month earlier, perhaps, but hundreds of lines ago. Program... (more)