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Developers spend most of their time figuring the system out
I am often asked what I mean when I say that developers spend most of their time figuring the system out. Let’s unpack the statement.
The oldest reference on the topic I know of dates back to 1979 in a book by Zelkowitz, Shaw, and Gannon entitled Principles of software engineering and design. It said that most of the development time was spent on maintenance (67%).
Software development costs (1979)
Granted, the book does not specify how the figure was obtained. Still, it was deemed an important enough problem to attract significant research attention since then.