Large packaged application software maintenance: A research framework

Abstract

This paper seeks to stimulate research on large application package software maintenance by presenting a tentative framework for future research in the area, partially instantiating that framework with examples from the papers in this special issue of the Journal of Software Maintenance and Evolution, highlighting other specific areas of research need and neglect, and posing a long list of related research questions. The user-organization-centric research framework captures relevant and interacting factors that can impact maintenance strategy, including software-source, support-source, and organizational and environmental contexts. These are viewed from the perspectives of four key stakeholders in the new distributed maintenance arrangement. In addition to the user-organization, stakeholders include the software vendor, third-party service providers, and society. Key messages from the paper include: maintenance generates benefits as well as costs; all stakeholders must have a lifecycle-wide view of maintenance costs and benefits; there is value in understanding all stakeholder perspectives; various software and related support sourcing alternatives have substantial maintenance incidence implications (incidence of costs, benefits, and responsibilities); and maintenance knowledge sourcing decisions should be made in the light of lifecycle-wide maintenance knowledge requirements.