About this episode

Russ Olsen joins Robby to discuss the importance of documentation and maintainability in software development.

Russ Olsen joins Robby to talk about maintainability, trade-offs, and why so many teams forget to document what they decided not to do. It’s a conversation about legacy systems, rewrites, developer quality of life, and the stories software teams need to tell each other better.

People in this episode

Host: Robby Russell

Guest: Russ Olsen

Topics covered

• maintainability
• trade-offs
• documentation
• legacy systems
• developer quality of life
• software teams

Keywords

• maintainability
• documentation
• legacy systems
• developer quality of life
• software teams
• trade-offs

More episodes of Maintainable

• Rein Henrichs: The Real Work of Maintenance Happens Before You Touch the Code · April 14, 2026 · 55 min
• Joel Oliveira: Predictability Is a Maintainability Feature · March 17, 2026 · 1h 1m
• Lucas Roesler: The Fast Feedback Loop Advantage · February 3, 2026 · 54 min
• Brittany Ellich: Using AI to Maintain Software, Not Rewrite It · January 21, 2026 · 1h 1m
• Kent L Beck: You’re Ignoring Optionality… and Paying for It · December 9, 2025 · 50 min
• Don MacKinnon: Why Simplicity Beats Cleverness in Software Design · December 2, 2025 · 51 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Maintainable podcast page.