"You only have to add your changes to this existing component. It's already working."

That was what our Product Owner told my team and me.

I bet you have heard that, too.

I was working for a past client and we needed to extend an existing feature.

We had to import an Excel file with a list of guests into a group event. Think of importing all the guests to a wedding reception at a hotel.

After finishing our task, the next thing we knew was that the "already-working" component had issues. The original team was laid off, and we couldn't get our questions answered or count on them to fix those issues.

What was a simple coding task turned out to be a longer one. Weeks later, we were still fixing existing issues.

Here's the lesson:

Before starting to work on top of an "already-working" feature: test it and give a list of existing issues.

Otherwise, those existing issues will appear as bugs in your changes. And people will start asking questions:

"Why are you taking so much time on this? It's a simple task. It was already working."

In my hometown, we have a saying: "Break old, pay new."

Lesson learned! Once you touch it, you own it!

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Happy coding!