How do you maintain your programming projects after completion?

The most apparent reason to employ using version control is to keep track of changes made and it can help allow you to navigate between past, present, and even future, your own mini time machine. Imagine accidentally overriding a script and instead of writing it from scratch, you open up the history, copy then paste. I've once had to rewrite a critical script because of my neglect of VCS. It usually starts off with "Oh it's on my system, once I turn it on. I can continue". What if it doesn't come on? VCS allows you to maintain your code across systems regardless of what system the code originates from.

Based on experience, this is the most annoying aspect of coding, but ironically enough it's the most critical. After code completion, even after just a few weeks of not touching the codebase, you're most likely going to find yourself spending hours, trying to read and understand YOUR OWN CODE. Having proper documentation of what your codebase does makes it easier for you to navigate through and understand your thought process, instead of spending hours trying to remember what you were doing.

Documentation is a very important and critical aspect, be it programming or any other activity. Humans cant remember the entire thing forever. Proper documentation helps us understanding the project code be it for the new developer or the project implementor itself after a certain period of time. Documentation can also help if we need to setup the same app in different setup from scratch. As developer we might be working for months on the project and might forget details about oldest implemented feature. Documentation can be either built in your code or can it be in any tool specific like Confluence.

This is also important, no long stories, just know that it is. It allows your codebase to stay up to date. So you won't necessarily need to rewrite the code just because the initial technologies are outdated.

Getting continuous feedback for the application is a best way for enhancing application/project features. This ensures the application/project is very friendly for the users/team and your work is very well used and appreciated by the users. Giving and receiving feedback is a very good way for indulging in feature enhancement and actual user testing.

Other things to consider; Backups Logging and Monitoring; Keep track of how your project is doing while away. Knowledge Transfer: Just in case (lol)

Project result needs to be checked in a regular basis to make sure it is providing consistent results. Adding auto failure notification on any layer of its automation, so that we can track failures from log files. Resiliency of the application and availability to provide full proof result. DR can also be handled to avoid single point of failure. These add-ons ensure that application can be production ready.