I completed (or so I thought) a project about 9 months ago.  Due to some dithering and dathering of resources by our team, we finally got around to full scale testing this month.  Changes were requested by various team members.  Some things were the result of data that was out of date.  These were small bugs that apparently had never been tested in previous versions of the software.  Some things were new features, which more than likely will be scratched and there is no budget to add the features.

But what I really hate about coming back to a project that I joined late in the process is the knowlege I have forgotten.  I worked on some Business Objects reports nine months ago.  I have a notebook full or test data and some notes about using @Prompt and "Group By".  However, when I work with the SQL, it takes me many hours or even several days to remember why I did something a particular way.  It's the small "gotcha's" that we so easily forget.  I am not in a hurry to change a query when I think it is wrong.  I may not remember why I tackled a problem with a particular algorithm, but I do know I didn't write the query just for grins.  So I have to work with it and fiddle with it for a while until my memory of the problem comes back.

Maybe it's my age that is causing me to not instantly recall code I have worked on.  However, when I was young and energetic, I could recall my work quickly.  But, I was naive enough to make changes quickly, which sometimes introduced new bugs that had to be fixed.  I am not sure if fixing it fast is better than fixing it with slow and cautious contemplation.  Both ways seem to cost about the same amount of time in the end.

Oh yes, I forgot.  I've started a new series on ATL Threading on my wiki.