The Four Types Of Software Maintenance

Software maintenance is the process of changing, modifying, and updating software to keep up with customer needs. Software maintenance is performed after product launch for several reasons, including overall software enhancements, problem or bug fixes, performance enhancements, and more. Software developers don’t have the luxury of launching a product and letting it run, but they must constantly be on the lookout to fix and improve their software to stay competitive and relevant.

Types of software maintenance

Software corrective maintenance

Software corrective maintenance is a typical, classic form of maintenance Software corrective maintenance is necessary when something goes wrong with a piece of software, including bugs and errors. These can have a wide impact on the functionality of the software in general and therefore need to be addressed as quickly as possible. Many times, software vendors can address issues that require corrective maintenance due to user-submitted error reports. If a company can spot errors and take care of them before users discover them, that’s an added advantage that will make your company look more trustworthy and reliable.

Preventive software maintenance

Preventive software maintenance looks to the future to keep your software running for as long as possible. This includes making necessary changes, upgrades, modifications and more. Preventive software maintenance can address minor issues that may not matter at the time, but may turn into bigger problems in the future. These are called latent faults and must be detected and corrected to ensure that they do not turn into effective faults.

Perfect software maintenance

As with any product on the market, once the software is released to the public, new problems and ideas surface. Users may see a need for new features or requirements they would like to see in the software to make it the best available tool for their needs. That’s when perfect software maintenance comes into play. Perfect software maintenance aims to modify the software by adding new features as needed and removing features that are irrelevant or ineffective in the software.

Adaptive software maintenance

Adaptive software maintenance is related to changing technologies as well as the policies and rules that apply to your software. These include changes to the operating system, cloud storage, hardware, etc. After these changes are made, your software must adapt to properly meet the new requirements and continue to perform well.

Conclusion

The inevitable cost of software maintenance should not deter you from building your own product. However, it is essential to structure its early development in a way that keeps these costs manageable. Planning and preparation go a long way to minimizing maintenance costs in the long run.