Existing computer applications, maintain or redesign: how to decide
Linda Brice · University of North Texas Digital Library (University of North Texas) · 1981
Maintenance of large applications programs is an aspect of performance management that has been largely ignored by those studies that attempt to bring structure to the software production environment. Maintenance in this paper means: fixing bugs, modifying current design features, adding enhancements, and porting applications to other computer systems. It is often difficult to decide whether to maintain or redesign. One reason for the difficulty is that good models and methods do not exist for differentiating between those programs that should be maintained and those that should be redesigned. This enigma is illustrated by the description of a large application case study. The application was monitored for maintenance effort, thereby providing some insight into the redesign/maintain decision. Those tools which currently exist for the collection and measurement of performance data are highlighted. Suggestions are then made for yet other categories of data, difficult to collect and measure, yet ultimately necessary for the establishment of accurate predictions about the value of maintaining versus the value of redesigning. Finally, it is concluded that this aspect of performance management deserves increased attention in order to establish better guidelines with which to aid management in making the necessary but difficult decision: maintain or redesign.