I think you mean this as part of the investigation in what this code does. That is, after setting up a test/dummy system, you remove the code, run your tests a

I think you mean this as part of the investigation in what this code does. That is, after setting up a test/dummy system, you remove the code, run your tests and try to break it. Perhaps sticking in breakpoints or print lines or whatever.. I doubt you really mean to experiment on the business-critical live system. Thats unlikely to be very effective anyway. The most obscure code is often a bug fix for some really obscure bugs. Maybe it fixes some weird bug in Swedish XP SP1, or something which you don't find just by removing it and testing. Situation depending, you will need to actually read and understand the code and investigate properly.