What Happens To Software Without Maintenance and Support?

Most of IT representatives should have heard this phrase at least once. Start-ups or individuals at the early stages of their project development usually are trying to do the development:

•  Fast,
•  Cheap,
•  Compatible with all the firmwares and devices of the world.

Other than that, most people for some reason think that being developed a few years ago the software should operate perfectly and no other development activities are needed in case you are not planning to develop an additional feature or to change something in the initial app.

Unfortunately, this is not true. And most of the code becomes legacy in a couple of years. The world of IT is the world of innovations. The intention of constant improvement is something essential. That’s why the App store requires updated versions of Xcode to publish applications, there is always a notification that the version of Ionic should be not lower than XX for the apps to be published in the app store and Google Play. Libraries of websites require updates and code itself requires maintenance.

The good news is…

If the maintenance and support are done on time and constantly it won’t cost you a fortune and will provide you with a stable software for years.

The bad news is…

That many companies do not pay attention to what is required when the software is released. The practice shows that most of the B2B representatives who are applying with a request to update legacy code were not told by their developers that the code will require constant updates. The developers were focused only on the delivery and the project.

Unfortunately, there were cases when small start-up ideas were developed by a developer who had left. Further, the app started to gain its popularity very quickly. The number of users was growing, but no one was maintaining the app. As a result, the backend could not cope with the load. We won’t go into details what happens to users when the app stops working properly and how hard to get them back after. The main idea is: even when the app is little it is a good idea for someone to monitor the load on the server-side and other potential weak points. This way you will always have some time for fixing or doing something before the app is unexpectedly down.

The general cost of maintenance is about 5-10 % of the development cost. Usually, maintenance is provided via so-called Service Level Agreements, which include different packages and options.

For detailed information about SLA you can find it in our article which was published on The Manifest.

Stability is something that is always great to have. Maintenance and support of your app will bring you stability and time to concentrate on your business goals.

In the IT community maintenance and support are usually divided into 3 so-called variants:

Maintenance. It includes only maintenance of existing code, bug fixing, updates of libraries and frameworks.

Maintenance and support. It includes option 1 together with a possibility to move on with additional development. Usually, if the project is live the additional development goes in the so-called “dev branch” and only after full regress testing of the system the software is released with new pieces of functionality.

Live Maintenance and Support. Provides customers with live consultants who are online to talk to users if they have any problems. This type of maintenance is usually required for betting, trading, banking software, where a quick reaction is something that is very important. Sometimes customers proceed with 24/7 live support when there is always someone online, who can fix the issue quickly when needed. Or simply explain to the user what they are doing wrong.

If you are willing to bring stability and give your project a chance in this world where a new idea comes to the market each day — think in advance of the tech partner, who will be capable not only to develop, but also to maintain the software.