That’s why the approach you describe here is workable. It is the principle that I in my company call “dQ >= 0″. Every time you touch the code for enhancements or error corrections leave the code the same or a little better. This way you don’t try to fix all problems in all code at all times, but you ensure that your changes keep the code at the same level or just a little better.

You can call this the “generalised boy scout rule” as it has a more pragmatic approach to code quality and long term maintainability and readability of your code base. As a software company the long term future of your company can be seen in the code base and the maintainability and readability of the code.

Specifically to your example Patrick I think that we can use this as part of our ongoing work with code quality! Keep your posts coming and keep NDepend evolving