Software Maintenance:

Software Maintenance is an activity in which program is modified after it had been put into use.

In Software Maintenance usually it is not preferred to apply major software changes to system’s architecture.It stands for all the modifications and updations done after the delivery of software product.

Maintenance is a process in which changes are implemented by either modifying the existing system’s architecture or by adding new components to the system.

Types of Software Maintenance:

Various types of Software Maintenance are

• Corrective Maintenance:

  Corrective maintenance deals with the repair of faults or defects found in day-today system functions. A defect can result due to errors in software design, logic and coding.

  Design errors occur when changes made to the software are incorrect, incomplete, wrongly communicated, or the change request is misunderstood. Logical errors result from invalid tests and conclusions, incorrect implementation of design specifications, faulty logic flow, or incomplete test of data.

  Corrective maintenance accounts for 20% of all the maintenance activities.

• Adaptive Maintenance:

  Adaptive maintenance is the implementation of changes in a part of the system, which has been affected by a change that occurred in some other part of the system.

  Adaptive maintenance consists of adapting software to changes in the environment such as the hardware or the operating system

  Adaptive maintenance accounts for 25% of all the maintenance activities.

• Perfective Maintenance:

  Perfective maintenance mainly deals with implementing new or changed user requirements.

  Perfective maintenance involves making functional enhancements to the system in addition to the activities to increase the system's performance even when the changes have not been suggested by faults.This includes enhancing both the function and efficiency of the code and changing the functionalities of the system as per the users' changing needs.

  Perfective maintenance accounts for 50%, that is, the largest of all the maintenance activities.

• Preventive Maintenance:

  Preventive maintenance involves performing activities to prevent the occurrence of errors. It tends to reduce the software complexity thereby improving program understandability and increasing software maintainability. It comprises documentation updating, code optimization, and code restructuring.

  Preventive maintenance is limited to the maintenance organization only and no external requests are acquired for this type of maintenance. Preventive maintenance accounts for only 5% of all the maintenance activities.

Maintenance Log:

• A maintenance log is a document (often relatively simple) that records who did what, when, and why..
• Maintenance logs are extremely useful for troubleshooting recurring or obscure problems, as they provide a record of all work performed on the system and may shed light on hard-to-spot interactions between seemingly unrelated symptoms.
• Maintenance of your valued assets is an essential chore to perform at regular intervals. What would happen if you own a precious metal ornament and it gets rusty over time? It will certainly lose its value, therefore to keep your assets in a presentable and functional condition you need to maintain them on a timely basis. Same is the case with your property and vehicle that if they are not maintained with time they will be de-valued.
• To keep an organized maintenance program it is better to design a log in which you can put your maintenance schedule of every equipment you own.

Let us consider the example :

• The maintenance log is a gizmo, which helps you in a case of collapses, damages & repairs. Maintenance logs are crucial because it helps to maintain the internal or external scam of your set program, stuff, kits or vehicle on periodic interludes.

• The maintenance log is usually sketched in the contract with the companies; these companies provide services on contract basis.

• Generally, maintenance logs refer to get any preventive measure on your property, equipment or services that it will retain its worth in future.

• The equipment maintenance log compilation will aid you in the following areas. You can:

  1. Design your program knowing that the maintenance task is near
  2. Make the resources ready for maintenance
  3. Outline the cost of maintenance
  4. Smooth flow of operations with no bugs
  5. Emergencies are possible with a maintained environment

• Several pre-designed on-line templates are available for sketching your maintenance logs. Many websites offer different categories for the different maintenance program. Microsoft excel also documents this log in a user-friendly way. Just download the template and maintain everything.