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In this module, we introduce the concepts and terminology that form an underlying basis to understanding the role and scope of software maintenance and activities required to provide cost-effective support to software. Activities are performed during the pre-delivery stage, as well as during the post-delivery stage.

Introduction

In software engineering, software maintenance is the process of enhancing and optimizing deployed software (software release), as well as remedying defects. Software maintenance is one of the phases in the software development process, and follows deployment of the software into the field. The software maintenance phase involves changes to the software in order to correct defects and deficiencies found during field usage as well as the addition of new functionality to improve the software's usability and applicability.

Software maintenance involves a number of specific techniques. One technique is static slicing, which is used to identify all the program code that can modify some variable. It is generally useful in refactoring program code and was specifically useful in assuring Y2K compliance.

The software maintenance phase is an explicit part of the waterfall model of the software development process which was developed during the structured programming movement of computer programming. The other major model, the spiral model developed during the object oriented movement of software engineering makes no explicit mention of a maintenance phase. Nevertheless, this activity is notable, considering the fact that two-thirds of a software system's lifetime cost involves maintenance.

In a formal software development environment, the developing organization or team will have some mechanisms to document and track defects and deficiencies. Software just like most other products, is typically released with a known set of defects and deficiencies. The software is released with the issues because the development organization decides the utility and value of the software at a particular level of quality outweighs the impact of the known defects and deficiencies.

The known issues are normally documented in a letter of operational considerations or release notes so that the users of the software will be able to work around the known issues and will know when the use of the software would be inappropriate for particular tasks.

With the release of the software, other, undocumented defects and deficiencies will be discovered by the users of the software. As these issues are reported into the development organization, they will be entered into the defect tracking system.

The people involved in the software maintenance phase are expected to work on these known issues, address them, and prepare for a new release of the software, known as a maintenance release, which will address the documented issues.

Software maintenance fundamentals

This section introduces the concepts and terminology that form an underlying basis to understanding the role and scope of software maintenance. The topics provide definitions and emphasize why there is a need for maintenance. Categories of software maintenance are critical to understanding its underlying meaning.

Questions & Answers

A golfer on a fairway is 70 m away from the green, which sits below the level of the fairway by 20 m. If the golfer hits the ball at an angle of 40° with an initial speed of 20 m/s, how close to the green does she come?
Aislinn Reply
cm
tijani
what is titration
John Reply
what is physics
Siyaka Reply
A mouse of mass 200 g falls 100 m down a vertical mine shaft and lands at the bottom with a speed of 8.0 m/s. During its fall, how much work is done on the mouse by air resistance
Jude Reply
Can you compute that for me. Ty
Jude
what is the dimension formula of energy?
David Reply
what is viscosity?
David
what is inorganic
emma Reply
what is chemistry
Youesf Reply
what is inorganic
emma
Chemistry is a branch of science that deals with the study of matter,it composition,it structure and the changes it undergoes
Adjei
please, I'm a physics student and I need help in physics
Adjanou
chemistry could also be understood like the sexual attraction/repulsion of the male and female elements. the reaction varies depending on the energy differences of each given gender. + masculine -female.
Pedro
A ball is thrown straight up.it passes a 2.0m high window 7.50 m off the ground on it path up and takes 1.30 s to go past the window.what was the ball initial velocity
Krampah Reply
2. A sled plus passenger with total mass 50 kg is pulled 20 m across the snow (0.20) at constant velocity by a force directed 25° above the horizontal. Calculate (a) the work of the applied force, (b) the work of friction, and (c) the total work.
Sahid Reply
you have been hired as an espert witness in a court case involving an automobile accident. the accident involved car A of mass 1500kg which crashed into stationary car B of mass 1100kg. the driver of car A applied his brakes 15 m before he skidded and crashed into car B. after the collision, car A s
Samuel Reply
can someone explain to me, an ignorant high school student, why the trend of the graph doesn't follow the fact that the higher frequency a sound wave is, the more power it is, hence, making me think the phons output would follow this general trend?
Joseph Reply
Nevermind i just realied that the graph is the phons output for a person with normal hearing and not just the phons output of the sound waves power, I should read the entire thing next time
Joseph
Follow up question, does anyone know where I can find a graph that accuretly depicts the actual relative "power" output of sound over its frequency instead of just humans hearing
Joseph
"Generation of electrical energy from sound energy | IEEE Conference Publication | IEEE Xplore" ***ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7150687?reload=true
Ryan
what's motion
Maurice Reply
what are the types of wave
Maurice
answer
Magreth
progressive wave
Magreth
hello friend how are you
Muhammad Reply
fine, how about you?
Mohammed
hi
Mujahid
A string is 3.00 m long with a mass of 5.00 g. The string is held taut with a tension of 500.00 N applied to the string. A pulse is sent down the string. How long does it take the pulse to travel the 3.00 m of the string?
yasuo Reply
Who can show me the full solution in this problem?
Reofrir Reply
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Source:  OpenStax, Software engineering. OpenStax CNX. Jul 29, 2009 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10790/1.1
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