Projects and Project Numbers Can Live Forever

Every change or new program is put into production by the project number ”that is, at least in companies utilizing programming change management programs to manage changes to their computer production programs.

You are the very visible author of your programs. All of your work in every program is testimony to your skill or lack of skill.

So you are known by your programming projects, including their number, size , and complexity and their success or failure. Your programming manager should be using the results of your work on your programming projects as an objective measurement of your productivity and performance ”and, probably, your ability and your value to the company.

Some of my programs have run in production for twenty-five years, and I routinely work on programs that have run that long. After a while you can predict the quality of a programming change, even one made twenty-five years ago, by looking at the programmer s name in the source program project change information. Pride in your work is yet another reason to do high-quality and readable programming: Your name is on it.

$$ The Bottom Line $$

Almost everything relating to programming is defined and measured as a project. Sometimes, even the programmer himself is considered a project, or a project-in-process, in the sense that he is in need of polishing his skills, or his attitude, or his productivity.