A staged model for the software life cycle

TLDR

Software maintenance has traditionally been viewed as a uniform activity, though researchers have identified distinct tasks such as perfective, adaptive, corrective, and preventive work. The authors argue that the changing nature of software development requires moving beyond a single maintenance concept to a staged view of the life cycle. They propose a staged model in which maintenance consists of successive stages, each characterized by specific activities, tools, and business implications. Understanding these stages and their transitions can benefit both business and engineering stakeholders.

Abstract

Software engineers have traditionally considered any work after initial delivery as simply software maintenance. Some researchers have divided this work into various tasks, including making changes to functionality (perfective), changing the environment (adaptive), correcting errors (corrective), and making improvements to avoid future problems (preventive). However, many have considered maintenance basically uniform over time. Because software development has changed considerably since its early days, the authors believe this approach no longer suffices. They describe a new view of the software life cycle in which maintenance is actually a series of distinct stages, each with different activities, tools, and business consequences. While the industry still considers postdelivery work as simply software maintenance, the authors claim that the process actually falls into stages. They think both business and engineering can benefit from understanding these stages and their transitions.