General practice for all quality records, and code can be considered a quality record, never post-date anything. Especially code because it’s so discoverable by cross-checkable references.
Has anybody been prosecuted for this? Probably not, but if an investigation finds that records were intentionally falsified with intent to deceive / cover up problems, that can lead to very costly regulatory responses. Even a minor regulatory response noting practices of inaccurate dates on records is still costly to the business that note is made on.
You have laws about your code comments?
General practice for all quality records, and code can be considered a quality record, never post-date anything. Especially code because it’s so discoverable by cross-checkable references.
Has anybody been prosecuted for this? Probably not, but if an investigation finds that records were intentionally falsified with intent to deceive / cover up problems, that can lead to very costly regulatory responses. Even a minor regulatory response noting practices of inaccurate dates on records is still costly to the business that note is made on.