The Importance of Software Maintenance and Optimisation

The Importance of Software Maintenance and Optimisation

According to research, 50% of the cost of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) of a product should go towards maintenance and optimisation. Unfortunately, most organisations do not actively maintain their software and applications until a critical failure occurs costing time and money that could otherwise have been avoided.

In this article, we will look at Software maintenance and optimisation, Software re-engineering as well as Software re-use.

The software industry is continuously changing and updating every day. Newer versions and faster and more stable software get released all the time. How often are you notified of App or Operating system updates every few weeks? By definition, Software maintenance is defined as the modification of a software product after delivery to correct faults, to improve performance or other attributes, or to adapt the product to a modified environment. This is done to ensure that the end-user is using the latest and newest technology available. Because of this ever-changing landscape, continuous work is necessary to ensure that the software your business is operating on is optimised and running as effectively and efficiently as possible.

If software or technology is core to your business, investing in the performance and efficiency of how this software runs should not be overlooked. Optimisations and maintenance can help companies save money by getting to issues before they become critical.

Types of Software Maintenance

Regular maintenance of your business software is mandatory and there are a few types of maintenance that will optimise the performance of your core software and tech. These are;

• Corrective maintenance:
  Corrective maintenance of a software product is essential either to rectify software bugs observed while the system is in use or to enhance the performance of the system.

• Adaptive maintenance:
  This includes modifications and updates when the customers need the product to run on new platforms, on new operating systems, or when they need the product to interface with new hardware and software.

• Perfective maintenance:
  A software product needs maintenance to support the new features that the users want or to change different types of functionalities of the system according to the customer demands.

• Preventive maintenance:
  This type of maintenance includes modifications and updates to prevent future problems of the software. It goals to attend problems, which are not significant at this moment but may cause serious issues in future.

Software maintenance can be used iteratively and can be extended as necessary so that customised items and processes can be included.

A typical maintenance activities framework

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Software Re-engineering and its benefits for business

Software Re-engineering is the process of updating software without affecting its functionality. This process may be done by developing additional features on the software and adding functionalities that should be considered to make the software experience better and more efficient.

Reverse Engineering is important due to:‍

– Several existing software products lacking proper documentation.
– Products and their code being highly unstructured.
– Product structure being degraded through a series of maintenance efforts.

Why Focus on Re-engineering?

• To provide proper system documentation.
• To restructure data as required.
• To assist with maintenance.
• To facilitate software reuse.
• To discover unexpected flaws or faults.

Use of Software Re-engineering

• Software Re-engineering is used in software design and maintenance and enables the development team to add new features to the existing software with or without knowing the source code.
• Reverse engineering is useful in software testing, as it allows the development team to look at the system from different angles.

Software reuse

Software reuse is the process of implementing or updating software systems using existing software assets, resulting in a software quality increase, productivity and reducing time to market. One way to achieve reuse is through software reengineering.

Reuse Process:‍

Software can be expensive to rebuild from scratch. Instead of rebuilding from scratch one can look at restructuring the current system and reusing what is already build.

Requirement Specification – It is important to identify how the software product must perform and what its requirements are and these must be clearly stated.

• Design – If any new designs are required one must first start with the new designs to get the correct look and feel. Once this is done we can move to the basic architecture of the system as a whole and its sub-systems are created.
• Specify Components – The designers will segregate the entire system into smaller components or sub-systems. The complete software design turns into a collection of a huge set of components working together.
• Search Suitable Components – The software component repository is referred to by the development team. Here we scope out the functionality and intended software requirements.
• Incorporate Components – All matched components are packed together to shape them as complete software.

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Software Support with SovTech

By prioritising software maintenance, businesses can ensure the security, reliability, and performance of their software applications and avoid costly downtime, loss of revenue, and security breaches. Software is not a set-it-and-forget-it solution. Regular software maintenance is essential to ensure the security, reliability, and performance of software applications.

Regular software maintenance is essential for African businesses to ensure their systems operate securely, reliably, and efficiently. Neglecting software maintenance can result in numerous risks and costs, while regular software maintenance can provide businesses with many benefits, including improved security, enhanced performance, increased productivity, better customer experience, and cost savings. Therefore, African businesses must prioritise software maintenance and upgrades to remain competitive and achieve long-term success in today's rapidly changing digital landscape.

SovTech is a reliable and experienced company that specialises in software maintenance services. By choosing SovTech, you can ensure that your software will be well-maintained and updated to meet the latest standards in the industry.