Rein Henrichs: The Real Work of Maintenance Happens Before You Touch the Code

Episode notes

Software maintenance is often framed as a technical problem. Refactoring code, fixing bugs, or upgrading dependencies. In this conversation, Robby Russell talks with Rein Henrichs about a different lens, one centered on understanding. Rein is a Principal Software Engineer at Procore , where he works within a large, long-lived system used across the construction industry. Rather than focusing on tooling, Rein emphasizes that well-maintained software is software that makes sense to the people maintaining it. To explain this, Rein introduces the idea of the line of representation , drawing on the work of Richard Cook . Engineers do not interact directly with systems. They rely on representations such as logs, dashboards, and code. These are approximations, not reality, echoing ideas from Plato’s Allegory of the Cave . When those representations break down, teams lose shared understanding, what Rein describes as “common ground.” This often shows up as weak signals. Subtle indicators that something is not quite right. They are easy to ignore, but over time they lead to confusion and slower decision-making. Incidents make this especially visible.

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