Maintenance

This entry characterizes software maintenance fundamentals,

which are generally considered to have significant effects

on successful software maintenance and evolution. The

main themes covered include: software evolution, main-

tenance task categories, life-cycle processes, supporting

processes, evaluation processes, and supporting techni-

ques. There exists classical studies on maintenance

tasks[1] and evolution laws,[2] some standards,[3,4] guide-

lines,[5] a good characterization of the history of mainte-

nance,[6] and various important studies on some of the

central maintenance processes, techniques, and evaluation

aspects as published in recognized scientific journals.