How is it possible to build a website with a homemade framework which has no documentation?

Question

As a consultant, you are sometimes thrown in difficult situations. How is it possible to build a website with a homemade framework which has no documentation?

Answer 1

Convince them of a rewrite using a well known framework with lots of documentation ?

Answer 2

You can:

1) Track down the developer and beat the documentation out of them
2) Disassemble (or Reflector if it's .NET) the code and try to figure out what's going on

Personally, I think number one is better for everybody in the long run. But two is the more practical solution.

Answer 3

All things are possible if you work hard at it, so solving this problem is indeed possible. In this case, then, you have to consider the costs involved in attempting it. Does your client understand that you're in the dark about the framework, and that will slow you down considerably? What happens to you if, after a while, they decide they're tired of the expense and kill the project? Will you be able to pick up new work? Will that tarnish your brand and make it harder to get work in the future?

Even if they're paying well now, it might not be worth it to do the gig in the long run.

In the meantime, hopefully it's a framework that can be decompiled or something.

Good luck, man.

Answer 4

It is possible, especially if you wrote it yourself :) But then again no-one else can use it, unless it is so clear no documentation is actually needed.

Answer 5

have a look at this thread : how do you deal with clients who have no processes have no methodology and ask

Answer 6

if the code is well written this would enhance the jobs surely. I've had a look at some Rails code recently which uses things I've not seen before. But because it was not that bad written I found my way through it. So I just put it another way what's worse than no documentation? Wrong documentation.

In the end it all boils down to some code which a machine can understand if you are lucky the original programmer has written the code for humans. If that would be appriated and honored you should get quite far even if "no documentation".

Answer 7

I think most of the websites are built this way.