An Overview Of Software Maintenance In Software Development

Software maintenance is a part of software development life cycle (SDLC). It is the process of changing, modifying, and updating software to adapt to user expectations. Software maintenance is carried out for several reasons, such as improving the software overall, fixing bugs, and increasing page speed. Using the right software maintenance strategy and tactics is crucial to improve business operation and to make the users satisfied. 
 

An Overview Of Software Maintenance Suggested By GCT Solution

What is Software Maintenance?

Software maintenance involves all activities involving the optimization and evolution of a software product. In the long run, your project cannot be successful if you ignore software maintenance including hosting, infrastructure, and recovery. Software maintenance is carried out after the product is released to the market. However, sometimes, software maintenance is a post-launch step.

The goal of software maintenance is to continuously improve your software project so that it can deliver the high-quality, value-driven product to users. Fixing bugs, updating new versions, improving UI, etc are parts of software maintenance.

Benefits of Software Maintenance

Reduce cost

The expense of introducing a new feature will be much lower if your software products are well maintained regularly. If you have clear maintenance strategy and documentation, your team will be better prepared for any changes, and they won't need to waste their valuable time on items that could have been updated a long time ago.

Save time

A comprehensive software maintenance plan can help your business save a lot of time. Imagine that one day, your web server is permanently unavailable. If you did not prepare for this case before, and you can not address this problem quickly, this breakdown can extremely affect your visibility and revenue.

Ensure continuity

With a comprehensive software maintenance process, you can make sure that your software products will operate smoothly; in case there are problems, it can be quickly fixed. Therefore, please ensure that your infrastructure and IT systems are regularly checked and upgraded. Without software maintenance, you may risk losing your previous work or documentation to unforeseen circumstances. 

Types of Software Maintenance

There are 4 main types of software maintenance, including corrective, adaptive, preventive and perfective.

Corrective Maintenance

Corrective maintenance includes detecting and fixing bugs, faults and errors.

Adaptive Maintenance

Adaptive maintenance focuses on adjusting the software to new changes in its environment, such as the operating system. The software must adhere to the policies or regulations of companies, platforms, etc as well.

Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance includes making changes, adaptations and upgrades to avoid possible problems in the future. As a result, it makes the software easier to scale and manage in the long run.

Perfective Maintenance

Perfective maintenance involves adding new features and removing ineffective ones based on feedback and demand of users. 

Here are 4 types of software maintenance in detailed listed by GCT Solution.

A Complete Software Maintenance Process

GCT Solution suggests a comprehensive software maintenance plan as below:

Step 1: Issue identification 

It involves determining when maintenance or modification is necessary. It is reported by the user, or the system itself may report it through logs or error messages.

Step 2: Analysis

The delivery team must examine effects of modification on the system, including any concerns for safety and security. If there are any potential problems, the team must find alternative solutions. The requirements specifications are then manifested into a set of necessary adjustments. Analysis and estimation of the cost of modification and maintenance are completed.

Step 3: Design 

The required specifications established in the earlier stage are used to guide the design of any new modules that need to be replaced or modified. For verification and validation, test cases are prepared and run.

Step 4: Implementation

With the aid of the structured design produced during the design phase, the new modules are coded. Unit testing should be carried out simultaneously.

Step 5: System testing 

Testing is conducted on newly developed modules during integration. New modules and the system are both subjected to integration testing. Finally, using regressive testing techniques, the system is tested as a whole.

Step 6: User acceptance testing (UAT)

The system must be internally tested before undergoing UAT. If users have any difficulties at this stage, problems will be resolved and documented for future iterations.

Step 7: Deployment 

After passing the UAT, the system is installed either from scratch or as part of a short update package. Then, it can be distributed throughout the enterprise. After the software is delivered, a new software maintenance package will be carried out.

Here are the detailed software development plan suggested by GCT Solution.  

Final thought

Software maintenance, in this changing world, is vital to the development and growth of your business. Never underestimate the value or importance of software maintenance. If you need help creating a software maintenance plan for your organization, reach out to an experienced app development partner.

If you are seeking a seasoned IT provider, GCT Solution is the ideal choice. With 3 years of expertise, we specialize in Mobile App , Web App, System Development, Blockchain Development and Testing Services. Our 100+ skilled IT consultants and developers can handle projects of any size. Having successfully delivered over 50+ solutions to clients worldwide, we are dedicated to supporting your goals. Reach out to us for a detailed discussion, confident that GCT Solution is poised to meet all your IT needs with tailored, efficient solutions.