Keyhole Maintenance

The systematic practice of MakeTheSmallestChangeThatCouldPossiblyWork to achieve one's objectives with a code base, without stopping to so much as RefactorLowHangingFruit, let alone RefactorMercilessly.

This phenomenon has several common causes, but they are all usually rooted in the culture and process TheManagement? choose to promote.

One of the most damaging types of KeyholeMaintenance is expedient coupling of different parts of the system -- enough of this and eventually the modularization succumbs to the PlayDohPrinciple and you're left with a BigBallOfMud.

See also: OldCodeRusts


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