Make sure that you have a sound software maintenance plan
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Software maintenance
Software is not static; it works on a server environment, communicates with other pieces of software, and is subject to new requirements from its users or legislators. In addition, some of your software components may themselves undergo updates, or may no longer be supported.
Please make sure that you have a person responsible for maintaining your software at all times.
How do you find / appoint that person or company?
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One efficient way is to get the entity which developed your software, to maintain it. The average app contains more than 50,000 lines of code, and it takes time for a new entity to understand how it all fits together! However, in the medium term, you will probably need to appoint a new entity, due to personnel, availability or other changes.
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If a new entity is to maintain your software, please plan ahead, as it could take up to a month or more for a new person to understand the code base and be able to make new commits on it.
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Make sure to have a thorough documentation of your software!
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Be careful if the entity assigned to maintain your software proposes to redevelop it from scratch instead: redevelopments tend to take longer than anticipated, plus you may run into the same problem again later, if a new entity has to take over. Refactoring could be a better option; we will write more about this in a future newsletter. Please contact us if you want us to give you a software maintenance proposal.
