If you are a programmer it is often hard to be able to work out how another programmed has designed a site to work. Not all programmers work in the same way and you may find that nothing is labelled and so you have to follow a trail of processes to find the bit of code you need to change.

If you are taking over a website project, bear in mind that any work you do may take a little longer to complete than it would on a site you have programmed. Some of this you may have to take on the chin, but other costs you may be able to pass on to the client.

Before starting any work, take a full back up of the site so should anything go wrong you have a copy of it that you can refer back to. Next start to have a good look through the front and back end of the website and try and familiarise yourself with how it all works and what functionality it has. This will make it easier to work on in the future. If you are struggling then you may need to speak to your client and advise them that to change the existing code is going to be a big job so therefore it may be better to build either the site or part of it again.