How do you meet software maintenance and support requirements?

Include software development, maintenance and support as part of the single team's scope. That way, an early visibility can be established as the product travels through the various life cycle stages. A newly launched product would have more support need. As the product matures, the support need reduces. A low support and high maintenance may suggest that it's an opportune time to consider innovation in the product.

invest in the education of your development staff on the product line concept and have your teams and management utilize a proven software factory / DevSecOps infrastructure that enforces agile development and strong configuration management.

* Assign roles & responsibilities at the beginning * Creating policies due to international & national standards * For the implementation projects be careful about the foundation sprints to build up strong structure. * Document Processes and the controls that you should be doing * Use GRC kinda tools to do operations - when - how - and write down results . * Use robots to do some specific controls

Detailed NFR(Non functional requirements) requirement documentation while building an architecture to ensure that perfomance , load, response time and other usability parameters are covered in designed, it's important to setup a ITIL framework for each application/product which is in production to provide high available product. NFR play a big role in defining a design which is scalable and sustainable.

In my experience, ignoring tech debt hurts business, customer satisfaction, and engineering morale. Piling up maintenance need only makes your product or platform weaker and at worst obsolete. Best is to have a separate budget to keep your software product compliant and efficient. After allocating budget, make sure every sprint has space to add stories related to maintenance. And third thing you should consider rotating team members working on maintenance and new software development

More often than not, one likes to create and finds documenting too cumbersome and boring. However, the boring stuff is usually the most important. I’ve seen instances where the very person who created the piece of system doesn’t know why something was done and struggles because of no documentation. It is even more important to document in cases when the maintenance is being done by a different person/team as it leaves a trail for the decisions taken to look back in future and helps in maintaining.

Good documentation is key to software maintenance and support. It's not just about creating it, but also keeping it updated and concise. Focus on documenting the "why" — why does it need to be upgraded and why the proposed upgrade is being made. This living documentation acts as a guide for the support team, helping them understand the software's architecture, design, and functionality.

By allocating certain percentage of Tech team's capacity during roadmap planning and work on those tasks during each sprint is what I do. 20% of the capacity is ideal for software maintenance and support.

In my experience, Testing and documentation ensure software remains reliable, but they alone don’t suffice for comprehensive maintenance 1. Changing requirements demand a deep understanding of code, which testing and documentation may lack. 2. Performance optimization involves profiling and code improvements, beyond testing and documentation. 3. Security updates require real-time vigilance, not just documentation. 4. Code quality deteriorates over time, necessitating refactoring, a task beyond testing and documentation. 5. Effective collaboration, code reviews, and communication are vital for maintaining software. 6. User support and training, distinct from testing and documentation, is required for some software.

Define maintenance types and their potential impact on the software. A windows or browser update vs. technology like a .net version upgrade would impact the software differently. Define, plan, prioritize, automate, and act to ensure user experience remains intact.

Software maintenance and support requirements involves prioritizing and categorizing tasks based on their urgency, impact, complexity, and feasibility; E.g; in a banking app, a critical bug that prevents users from making transactions would be a high-priority task due to its high impact and urgency. It would be categorized as a bug fix and assigned to a developer with the necessary expertise. On the other hand, a new feature, might be lower priority if it's not essential for the application's core functionality. It can be scheduled for a future release. 💎This approach ensures that resources are allocated effectively, urgent issues are addressed promptly, and stakeholders are kept informed about the status and progress of various tasks.

In my experience it is helpful to routinely meet with your stakeholders to ensure that you are prioritizing work in such a way that you maximize the value for the business. When meeting with stakeholders, I recommend that you begin with the end in mind. Start with your backlog organized based on impact and expected time to value. Take feedback from your stakeholders. Then adjust as needed based on collaborative discussions. This will ensure that you make the biggest impact for your organization in the shortest amount of time.

The best way to use the Pareto Principle(80-20 rule). Prioritize the chunk that will impact the business the most. Communication with the client is more important. Explain to the client on why you plan to prioritize those and always align with them before starting the development or fix. Ask them if there are any priorities and make sure all are in the same page

In software development, prioritize tasks using the military's law of combat, "Prioritize and Execute." Categorize tasks by urgency, impact, complexity, and feasibility. Use clear and transparent methods for task management and communicate progress regularly to stakeholders, users, and developers. By taking a strategic approach to task management, ensure smooth and effective execution.

Support and maintenance are just not about resolving the bugs being reported on the production, it is at the same time optimizing and stabilizing the application and that is where prioritizing and categorizing come into the picture. For Sure, anything breaking the application on production has to be prioritized and treated urgently- but at the same time- understand that prioritizing the optimization at certain areas even if it is not breaking- may curb and reduce future challenges and hence make the application scalable and stable both.

'Implement and Review' or rather 'Implement and (Review) x 3' is very important rule for maintenance projects. A clearly articulated Review strategy with defined set of review rules and ownership is a must for a successful maintenance project. There are many automated tools which can be integrated with build pipelines to cover some part of it followed by manual reviews is one of the proven ways to go.

Implementation is the Key. Ensure you review it before taking it to the client. Show the client the demo a few days in advance than agreed. Their feedback will be valuable or we can fix what is required on time.

1. Regularly Review Performance: Schedule periodic checks to ensure software is running smoothly and meets performance standards. 2. Implement Updates and Patches: Apply updates to keep the software secure and compatible with new systems or technologies. 3. Gather User Feedback: Collect feedback from users to identify areas needing improvement or additional support. 4. Conduct Routine Testing: Test software after updates to ensure stability and functionality.

Implementing software changes requires a meticulous approach. By adhering to software development best practices, like coding standards and version control, you ensure clean and maintainable code. Rigorous reviews, testing, and debugging further guarantee that updates meet user needs and don't introduce new problems. This focus on quality ensures a smooth user experience and minimizes future maintenance work.

Software changes are inevitable, but implementing them effectively requires a structured approach. Leverage established software engineering practices like coding standards, version control, and code reviews. This ensures clean, well-documented code and minimizes errors. Rigorous testing validates the changes meet requirements and don't introduce new problems. It's not just about fixing things, it's about making the software better. Take the time to review and refine throughout the process to deliver high-quality updates that keep your users happy.

While there are many points to be considered here, continuous learning and improvement is my go to option for support and maintenance. While we may document anything and everything we can think of, there is always some room for scenarios that one may not have come across. For example, a double hop that works in your UAT environment may not work in your Prod environment. Only when you run into issues, you figure out how to solve them. Having an up to date Runbook and KEDB is also very important. Whenever something new comes up, the Docs must be updated.

Maintain feedback details in proper categories and fixes solutions in detail for that we have to keep in mind below points: 1- Prioritise each feedback on basis of severity and priority and how this can impact end user and organisation level which helps to decide ETA for any issues and high priority issue can fixe sooner. 2- Proper communication to the reporter along with stakeholders who are working on it. 3- If product have version maintain feedback corresponding.

Continuously learn and improve your maintenance process, just like refining your personal style. Analyze feedback and data to identify what's working and what needs tweaking. Use these insights to keep your software looking fresh, functional, and fabulous.

One important step is the training and documentation about the software functionality and its specifications. Documentation and training helps the maintenance and support team to understand the software architecture, design, functionalities, and dependencies, as well as to track the changes and updates made over time. This is very important for maintenance and support.

1- Keep rewarding system for feedback if critical feedback come through end user. 2- End of the year can announce and highlight best feedback who help improve product. 3- Can keep updated FAQ on basis of ongoing feedback and mention version specific details. 4- Keep maintain data and chart in respect of how much feedback and issues reported and how much company have fixed.

Establish clear and document SLAs and incident management process. SLA play a keep role in setting and managing expectations, budget, etc. Incident management helps resolve issues facing production environments and has an established and agreed process to communicate and getting the right audience involved to resolve issues.

Keep a maintenance log and ensure that regular maintenance activities are performed. Good management is key. Ensure those with maintenance roles are following through on commitments.

1. Knowledge Transfer and Team Training: Investing in knowledge transfer and team training ensures a smooth handover between developers and the maintenance team. This empowers the support team to understand the software's intricacies and tackle future challenges effectively. 2. User Empowerment and Self-Service: Developing clear user guides, tutorials, and FAQs can empower users to resolve basic issues independently. Implementing self-service options, like knowledge base portals or chatbots, reduces the burden on the support team and improves user experience.