[SystemSafety] Development vs maintenance
Derek M Jones
derek at knosof.co.uk
Sat Nov 17 22:06:13 CET 2018
Paul,
>> General software has a short lifetime and it is not cost effective
>> to invest too much up front:
>> https://shape-of-code.coding-guidelines.com/2017/04/20/average-maintenancedevelopment-cost-ratio-is-less-than-one/
>
> Sorry, but this is patently not true. A lot of software has a
> surprisingly LONG lifetime. I'm aware of VAX-based systems and IBM
> mainframe systems still in critical use after several decades.
Yes, a lot of software does have a long lifetime.
But, there is an awful lot more that has a very short
lifetime (at least the according to the one dataset I am aware
of that measures such things).
The long time time software gets noticed.
Short lifetime software is not around long enough to get much notice.
> It's not clear to me how anyone could distinguish, precisely, between
> development and maintenance in any case - if you have a definition I'd
> be interested to read it.
Yes, this causes problems for data analyzing.
There are people who apportion costs to various work categories.
I am not aware of any data that that includes both development costs and
carefully apportions subsequent costs.
--
Derek M. Jones Software analysis
tel: +44 (0)1252 520667 blog:shape-of-code.coding-guidelines.com
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