An evolutionary structural model for software maintenance

Abstract

The traditional approach to business information system development, in which development and maintenance are regarded as separate and distinct phases, has placed overemphasis on a pragmatic but artificial distinction between these phases. This article is concerned with an approach to software development in which delivered systems are regarded as evolutionary products and, as such, have a seamless split between initial development and subsequent refinement. To achieve this requires a clearer separation between the business policies, functional requirements, and object models that are conventionally embedded into software, often in a way that makes their identification difficult. Thus maintenance, and hence evolution, are also difficult. © 1992.