Once a product is out in the market, we begin thinking how to incorporate the feedback that we have received into the next version of the product, to improve usability, user-friendliness, features and overall value.

Software product maintenance activities can be broadly classified into

• Corrective maintenance - reactive modification to correct discovered problems
• Adaptive maintenance - modification to keep it usable in a changed or changing environment.
• Perfective maintenance - improves performance or maintainability.
• Preventive maintenance - modification to detect and correct latent faults.

Most enterprise products face a problem in supporting their installed base on legacy versions of the product. Software product maintenance need may arise to

• Correct errors
• Improve the design
• Make enhancements
• Interface with other systems
• Convert to use other hardware
• Migrate legacy systems
• Retire systems
• Maintaining control over the system’s day-to-day functions
• Maintaining control over system modification
• Perfecting existing acceptable functions
• Prevent system performance from degrading to unacceptable levels

A significant investment needs to be made to maintain multiple versions of an old code-base, many times on legacy technology platform to support existing clients until they can be persuaded to migrate to newer versions of the product.

Considering its client requirements and inherent challenges in software product maintenance, SoftX has devised innovative software product maintenance model which focuses on

• Process implementation
  • Development of maintenance plans and procedures
  • Establishing procedures for modification requests
  • Implementing the CM (configuration management) process
• Problem and modification tasks
  • Initial analysis
  • Problem verification
  • Developing options for implementing the modification
  • Documenting the results
  • Obtaining approval for modification option
• Modification implementation task
  • Performing detailed analysis
  • Development, coding, and test of modification requests
• Maintenance review/ Acceptance tasks
  • Conduct reviews
  • Obtain approval for modification
• Migration tasks
  • Development of migration plan
  • Notify users of migration plan
  • Conduct parallel operations
  • Notify user that migration has started
  • Conduct post-operation review
  • Ensure that old data is accessible
• Software retirement tasks
  • Develop a retirement plan
  • Notify users of retirement plan
  • Conduct parallel operations
  • Notify user that retirement has started
  • Ensure that old data is accessible

SoftX carefully outlines service level agreements (SLAs) requirements, customizing our maintenance process for unique client needs. We bring to each project a strong methodology for application maintenance, based on customized application maintenance and support methodology.

Software product vendors can use SoftX’s offshore maintenance services effectively to continue to maintain their current products along with new application developments using flexible business models provided by SoftX. They can manage the ramp-up and scale-down of efforts that are required for peaks and troughs that are typical of a product over its maintenance cycle

SoftX enables you to deliver on your global initiatives at lower costs and drive future business growth.