One of the most common concerns for any business is unscheduled downtime and everything coming to a halt from one day to the next, which can lead to not only frustration but also a significant hole in the company’s productivity and finances.
But what’s worse than the downtime itself is discovering later that it could have been avoided.
How?
Through software maintenance!
Software maintenance is more than just fixing bugs; it is also about continuously honing your product and ensuring that it performs at a level that allows it to provide the most value to its users.
It is simply an attempt to evolve with time and to stay up to date with the changes.
4 types of software maintenance
Depending on the reason and purpose, software maintenance can be classified into four types:
- Corrective software maintenance deals with repairing bugs, faults, and errors as they are detected. It is usually done in the form of small updates frequently.
Corrective software maintenance can be implemented when:
- Software fails to function properly due to faulty logic flow, wrong implementation, invalid or incomplete tests, and so on.
- Preventative software maintenance entails making changes, adaptations, and upgrades to avoid potential future problems while also making the software easier to scale and manage in the long run. These would be security patches, operating systems, applications, and third-party plugin updates.
Preventive maintenance provides:
- A scheduled time for identifying and applying updates, reducing the risk of unplanned downtime.
- Testing of updates to ensure that updates function as expected
- Regression testing is the process of testing the logical process of your solution to ensure nothing else has been negatively affected.
- Perfective software maintenance deals with adding new features and removing ineffective ones in response to changing user needs and feedback. The goal of perfective software maintenance is to improve the user experience through functional enhancements.
You can perform perfective software maintenance if you want to update the software system to improve its value in accordance with user requirements. This includes the following:
- Improving performance
- Improving software usability and user interfaces
- Improving software performance and functionality
- Adaptive software maintenance focuses on adapting software to changes in its environment as well as company policies or regulatory requirements.
The primary goal of adaptive software maintenance is to update and modify the software when the following conditions exist:
- The operating system that your software runs on is changing due to technology, laws, policies, rules, operating systems, and so on.
- End users expect the product to be compatible with new hardware or software.
- You predicted software flaws that would harm your customers in the future.
Why Software Requires Maintenance
1. Bug Fixing
BugA is old computer term for something that happens in software or an application that is not as expected. Bugs... fixing is a top priority in maintenance management to ensure that the software runs smoothly.
This procedure entails searching for and correcting code errors. Problems can arise in hardware, operating systems, or any component of the software. This must be done without jeopardizing the rest of the software’s functionality.
2. Remove Outdated Functions
Did you know that 80% of breaches could have been prevented if businesses had kept their installed software up-to-date?
Not often, but certain functions may need to be updated or rewritten due to major changes in updates. The risk posed by not addressing these outdated software functions can cause a breach of potentially sensitive data.
3. Enhanced security features
The purpose of software maintenance processes is to increase the security of your data.
The safest methods of hosting your application’s infrastructure can make or break your digital product. As you can see, software maintenance should be taken into account at every stage of the product development process, from planning to post-deployment optimization.
4. Performance Improvement
Developers detect and resolve issues in order to improve system performance.
Ensuring that the right protocols are used when your application is under load is critical to your application’s performance. In the scenario that your app or solution is used by thousands of users, the last thing you need is for your application to perform poorly.
Regular Maintenance monitors the health of your application and allows developers to troubleshoot and enhance processes, and storage, improve business capabilities, maximize cost-effectiveness in-turn profitability, and so on.
5. Business Growth
It is difficult to ensure that your software will perform desired operations on time without proper upgrades, maintenance, and support. It is also difficult to match the level of performance expected. If that’s the case, it will not meet the needs of business performance. However, you have made an investment to help your business grow. So, that means routine maintenance is required for optimal business growth.
6. Maintenance
System maintenance is important. It keeps solutions alive in the face of changing technology and business environments.
In general, and as a practice, IT service providers advise their clients to use software maintenance and updating services. This ensures the system’s consistent and improved performance.
Wrapping Up
Software maintenance activities have always been important, but they are now more so than ever. It’s no longer an option, it’s a must!
If you want to make sure that the maintenance of your software will meet the needs of your users and business as much as possible, we’re here for you.
Put your software in competent hands! Aerion Technologies can become your partner in software maintenance and support. Share your requirements and get a FREE consultation today!
