AspectJ Design Overview

Although it is essential to upgrade software to prevent aging, changing software can cause a different form of aging. The designer of a piece of software usually had a simple concept in mind when writing the program. If the program is large, understanding the concept allows one to find those sections of the program that must be altered when an update or correction is needed. Understanding that concept also implies understanding the interfaces used within the system and between the system and its environment. Changes made by people who do not understand the original design concept almost always cause the structure of the program to degrade. Under those circumstances, changes will be inconsistent with the original concept; in fact, they will invalidate the original concept. Sometimes the damage is small, but often it is quite severe. After those changes, one must know both the original design rules and the newly introduced exceptions to the rules, to understand the product. After many such changes, the original designers no longer understand the product. Those who made the changes, never did. In other words, nobody understands the modified product."

Software that has been repeatedly modified (maintained) in this way becomes very expensive to update. Changes take longer and are more likely to introduce new 'bugs'.