Demarcating the Scope of a Predelivery Maintenance Process

Abstract

Abstract-Predelivery maintenance is one of the processes that has not received enough attention both within the academia and industry. Still, it counts as one of the least visible lifecycle processes. In this paper, we make it more visible by demarcating its scope within software lifecycle. We do it within eleven companies. Our goal is to find out how the industry understands predelivery maintenance and how it places it within software lifecycle. Our results show that predelivery maintenance is conducted by all the organizations studied in five different contexts. These organizations however use different terms for it or they treat predelivery maintenance as part of other processes. For this reason, we conclude that predelivery maintenance is a process that cross-cuts several lifecycle processes.

Core handover problems

“…These are (1) insufficient system knowledge, (2) lack of domain knowledge, (3) insufficient communication, (4) inadequate documentation, and (5) difficulties in tracking changes. In this section, we present these problems.…”

“…As shown in Figure 1, the handover process is placed between predelivery and postdelivery phases. In reality, however, parts of the handover process are run in parallel with the final phases of predelivery process and the initial phases of the postdelivery process [4], [5], [8].…”

“…For this reason, on purpose, in this initial study, we have only elicited the core problems that might be relevant for all types of handover contexts [5]. Irrespective of whether maintenance stays with development or not, these core problems however indicate a strong need for a predelivery maintenance process and identification of its contexts as well [2], [3], [4].…”

“…Presently, we are in the process of exploring the handover process [4], [5], [6]. When doing it, we encounter many problems of identifying its context, scope, dimension and inherent phases and activities.…”