“There is no single reason why software is maintained; however, most reasons relate to a desire to evolve system functionality in order to overcome internal processing errors or to better support changing business needs. Thus, maintenance is a fact of life for most systems. This means that maintenance can begin soon after the system is installed. As with the initial design of a system, maintenance activities are not limited only to software changes, but include changes to hardware and business procedures. A question many people have about maintenance relates to how long organizations should maintain a system. Five years? Ten years? Longer? There is no simple answer to this question, but it is most often an issue of economics. In other words, at what point does it make financial sense to discontinue evolving an older system and build or purchase a new one? The focus of a great deal of upper IS management attention is devoted to assessing the trade-offs between maintenance and new development. In this chapter, we will provide you with a better understanding of the maintenance process and describe the types of issues that must be considered when maintaining systems.” (Modern Systems Analysis and Design, 8th ed, Joseph Valacich)
Objectives:
- Explain and contrast four types of maintenance.
- Describe several factors that influence the cost of maintaining an information system and apply these factors to the design of maintainable systems.
- Describe maintenance management issues, including alternative organizational structures, quality measurement, processes for handling change requests, and configuration management.
Topics:
From Modern Systems Analysis and Design:
14. Maintaining Information Systems
14.1. Systems Maintenance
14.1.1. Types of Maintenance
14.1.1.1. Corrective
14.1.1.2. Adaptive
14.1.1.3. Perfective
14.1.1.4. Preventive
14.1.2. Costs of Maintenance
14.1.3. Managing Maintenance
In this unit, plan to:
- Participate in the class discussion thread
- Read chapter 14 in Modern Systems Analysis and Design