Architectural modifications to deployed software
Science of Computer Programming
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Over the years, as a software product is maintained, the factors involved in costing a change become much more complex than most customers and vendors realize. Failure to understand and dramatic declines in quality and reliability. This presentation will address the root cause of this problem. As requirements are recursively modified over time, basic software architecture assumptions become eroded. Users continue to subject the software to new scenarios neither "envisioned" nor accommodated by the original design and test strategies. Repair and change histories must be added to the long lists of traditional considerations to be addressed by the software maintainers. The cost impact of these additional activities are not readily recognized because software is an invisible abstract entity. Common resource control consideration algorithms based on lines on code, function points, and numbers of test cases break down because they do not include. A systematic approach is provided for developing a more accurate change costing algorithm in the maintenance environment.