Trends in software maintenance tasks distribution among programmers: A study in a micro software company

Abstract

Software maintenance has been recognized by academicians and practitioners from industry as the most challenging and expensive part in software life cycle. The complexity and high costs of maintenance activities require systematic evidence of all maintenance activities and accurate models for planning and managing them. A common way for analyzing practice in software engineering is based on trend analysis of historical data related to activities and tasks implemented in the past. This paper presents a case study conducted in a micro software company aimed at introducing a schema for classifying maintenance tasks, and identifying trends in software maintenance tasks distribution among the programmers in the company. The discussion of results includes benefits for the company, limitations of the research and implications for academicians and practitioners in industry. The paper concludes with a few promising further research directions.