Even if you could.... why not modify a method? What's wrong with modifying it? It's only bad if you don't fully understand what it does, and/or all the ways/con

Even if you could.... why not modify a method? What's wrong with modifying it? It's only bad if you don't fully understand what it does, and/or all the ways/contexts where it's used. But, that's a sign, right? You can't ever hope to safely change that which you do not understand. If you're afraid of the codebase - I argue it's better to set aside time for making the codebase less intimidating, than to devise clever hacks/ "software process" for working around your lack of understanding. The latter will just make the codebase more intimidating, over time.