How to deal with mess when organizing/looking for files or programming

Question

let's suppose that you return after six months to some project for which you don't remember anything or you have to start to work in some other's project for which you have no clue or information about.

The past is irremediable here, what would you do now?

My usual plan:

1- Before trying to understand anything; write down what I think I will find out here, or draw a mind map or concept map

2- First not-in detail investigation, trying to get a rough idea and drwaing the structure

3- Compare with my notes from 1 and decide if I understand enough, if not repeat cycle until I am happy

4- Decide the work steps of the project and work on it

....

Answer 1

I find graph visualization to be of great help in any scenario. This thread on stackoverflow might be helpful.

Answer 2

I would typically start by not touching anything I don't have to.

If someone says we need to change xx, I would do a search for xx in the project, or find the relevant part and simply try my best to understand xx and just edit that part.

If I have a lot of time, I would refactor and/or go through the whole project so I can understand it.

Answer 3

my approach to keep things organized:

a decent file manager (sorry, folks, but Windows Explorer doesn't cut it for me) such as Total Commander.

a fast and powerful search utility, my choice: Everything.

for project management, i'm using FreeMind.

and last but not least i'm using EssentialPIM Free (portable) for contact and appointment management.