I once started on a small project (four people) in which the original members of the project team had not set up any standards for naming electronic files. Two weeks into the project, I was asked to write a piece of code that would be referenced by other files that had already been written. When I finished my piece, I had to go back to the other files and make changes to reflect my new work. The only problem was that the lead programmer decided to name the files using his initials (e.g., GG1.prg, GG2.prg, GG3.prg)—and there were over 200 files! I spent two days opening every one of those files because there was no way to tell what their contents were. Needless to say, from then on, the team created a code for file names that provided basic information regarding the file’s contents and they kept a log that recorded the file name, its purpose, the date of last update, and programmer for every file on the project. Barbara Wixom

QUESTION:
Think about a program that you have written in the past. Would another programmer be able to make changes to it easily? Why or why not?