A Model to Evaluate and Improve the Quality of Software Maintenance Process

Multiple solutions to problems of software development have been proposed such as development methodologies, management models and software tools. The function of software maintenance, on the other hand, has not known such infatuation despite its share of the software budget in organizations: between 50% and 70% of the software budget. The software maintenance function suffers from a scarcity of management models that would facilitate its evaluation, its management and its continuous improvement. This paper proposes an evaluation model of the quality of the software maintenance process. The proposed model is based on the CMM-SEI* model developed by Carnegie Mellon University to evaluate and improve the software development process. The architecture of the CMM model has been retained almost as is while its content, which was specific to the development process, has been either modified or extended to take into account the characteristics specifics to the maintenance function. These characteristics specifics to software maintenance were identified based on both practitioners experience and seminal literature publications on software maintenance; these characteristics were then organized into key process areas into the CMM ordinal scale type structure which promotes a progressive improvement path for gradual improvements of software functions. (*) CMM-SEI: Capability Maturity Model of the Software Engineering Institute