Characteristics of application software maintenance
Communications of the ACM
The importance of the individual
ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes
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This paper describes the maintenance and enhancement of the Computer Sciences Teleprocessing System (CSTS) and its component processors. CSTS is the system offered by the INFONET Division of Computer Sciences Corporation to provide nationwide conversational and batch teleprocessing service. In the first section, the organization of the project personnel and major activities of project departments are described. The second section describes the process by which functional enhancements and error corrections are implemented. The final section describes testing techniques and procedures used during implementation. The project staff is organized into implementation departments and service departments. Implementation departments develop new features of the system, corrections to errors, and improvements in system operation, especially in reduction of software overhead. Implementation departments are organized by system software functions such as operating system (device control, task management, and file management), language processors and data management systems, communications software, and applications. The service departments are system integration, performance analysis, product management and system test. The functions performed by these departments are described. Also described are the system evolution conferences and the periodic review of enhancements by a Change Advisory Board. During the development of a new version of the system, effective tracking of the status of changed modules is essential. The data base and process used to track new features, error corrections and changed component modules are described. The flow of implemented changes through system integration and system test is delineated, as is the development and verification of change documentation for users, administrators and operations personnel. The final section of the paper describes the design and documentation of test programs and the organization of test sets. Effective test operations are achieved by using self-checking tests as well as automated test operation and verification. Tests for compliance with functional specifications and for conformity to internal design are described.