Four Categories of Software Maintenance Users should know

Date Published: 15-07-2020



At S4 we know the importance of well-managed customer software support to correct, maintain, upgrade and adapt the software as the product evolves with the user’s needs. Software maintenance is a crucial part of any application’s life-cycle to ensure ongoing stability and well-being.

Why do we say this?

Something to keep in mind about software products is that development does not end on the product launch. The launch of the software is just step one, after launch the product life-cycle continues and this is where good maintenance can make or break a software.

The saying “change with times or get left behind” applies to software when you think about it. With tech unicorns appearing, new tech updates being released regularly and the momentum of the tech industry. Users have to notice the landscape of software is an ever-changing one which seems to continuously evolve and grow. With this in mind users and product, owners can recognize the value of well-managed software support to keep applications evolving with the times to stay reliable and stable.

At S4 we know the importance of well-managed customer software support to correct, maintain, upgrade and adapt the software as the product evolves with the user’s needs.

With this in mind, it is good to know what categories of software maintenance exist in the software development world.

Corrective Software Maintenance

This type of maintenance aims at fixing functions which are not acting as expected in the software and other user errors. The fixes are deployed in minor to large modifications to the existing software solution codebase depending on the severity of the software error experienced. User errors are usually discovered through error reports or users when interacting with the software.

Adaptive Software Maintenance

In the ever-changing would of technology adaptive maintenance does exactly what the name implies, it is the maintenance associated with environment changes your software is in. The software is adapted and modified through updates to the software to ensure application well-being and expected functionality. Examples of changes which require adaptive maintenance are hardware and software dependencies.

Adaptive maintenance also is required when the customer requests the software solution operating on a new platform which requires software changes to be made, for example, moving to the cloud.

Perfective Software Maintenance

The result of this maintenance category is the ensured ongoing usability and functionality of the software solution by focusing on the growth of the software through enhancements reported by customers or team members. Perfective maintenance also encompasses the process of removing functions which have become redundant or no longer user friendly. This type of maintenance is really the evolution of the user’s software over a while.

Preventative Software Maintenance

This category is all about future-proofing the customer software with maintenance associated with preventing future software problems and extending the application life-span, for example, the software becoming outdated. Instead, maintenance is done to ensure the ongoing functions of the software and the ability for it to scale should it be required to. The goal is to ensure a stable and reliable software solution with a solid maintenance foundation.

Ongoing software maintenance in the ever-changing world of technology is a given, it is the unavoidable truth of software development. With this in mind, it is not just enough to know the categories of software maintenance as a customer. It is important to understand the impact the above-mentioned maintenance categories can have your daily business operations and daily functions should the maintenance not be managed effectively. Good maintenance management reduces risks, reduced company interruption and a smooth-running software solution to keep your organization or customers happy.

Ongoing software maintenance is an unavoidable truth of software development.

Get in touch with S4 to find out what our software support teams can do to provide stable on-going maintenance to correct, adapt, perfect and create reliable applications for both legacy and new systems.

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