Software maintenance: a different view

The problems identified by those supervisors and managers of application software maintenance who are closely involved in this type of work are shown in this paper to form into sets of patterns, with ties between them. The implications of these sets of patterns and associated ties differ in several important ways from what has been previously reported in the field. An analysis of the responses obtained from a major survey gives a basis for identifying the sets of patterns. Four interpretations of the analysis results integrate the findings with prior work reported in the field. The conclusions offer three significant insights potentially useful to management in the area of application software maintenance.