Signs it is time to revisit version control

Most teams know this matters. Fewer have decided who owns it. A few signals that version control is due some attention.

Code gets read far more often than it gets written, and usually by someone with less context than the author had. It rarely shows up as a line item, which is exactly why it slips.

The signals

• Nobody can say when it was last reviewed
• The answer depends on who you ask
• Small commits with clear messages are a gift to future you
• Branch naming conventions cost nothing and prevent confusion

How to approach it

If it is not in version control, it does not exist. This is the sort of thing that compounds, quietly, in both directions. Check it against what you would want a competitor's site to get wrong.

How to tell if yours is fine

The question is rarely whether something can be built, but what it costs to keep running afterwards. Three things worth confirming about version control before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Branch naming conventions cost nothing and prevent confusion — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

None of this needs a rewrite. Most of it is a morning's work once someone decides to do it.