What is software maintenance cost

Many companies can use the same version of the software for years without needing any maintenance. What do you do in this scenario? There are two options: you can try and track down an engineer or developer to fix the problem — if possible.

However, the Engineer would need to be familiar with your software, and that can be hard to find from a simple Google search. If the VAR works with your software, they can usually help you, or know of someone who can. Reach out to us to learn more about what we can specifically do to help you achieve your growth goals! Get in Touch! Heather Mellinger joined BrainSell in as the digital marketing coordinator. With experience in public relations, marketing, and graphic design, Heather assists with content and further developing the BrainSell voice.

Subscribe to get all our latest content sent directly to your inbox! Here's your secret weapon. We only send out the best of the best content and insights that have helped businesses like yours achieve growth. April 30, Business Technologies. When Maintenance Costs Begin Most vendors start maintenance the moment you sign the contract or begin the implementation. What Maintenance Fees Do Maintenance fees typically go towards recurring bug fixes, investing in new products or solutions to add to the software portfolio, and Research and Development to continue innovating the product — meaning when new versions come out, you can upgrade your software for free.

Ready to Grow? Furthermore, effective software maintenance requires proper documentation so that the developers can be spared the trouble of going through thousands of lines of codes in multiple modules to locate and troubleshoot the problems.

The entire process of software maintenance involves many moving parts with varying degrees of complexity and resource requirements and hence different costs. Broadly, these services can be classified into three types. These can be the problems that show up during the initial testing phase in which case they are to be solved right away or once it is out to the consumers in which case the troubleshooter programs need to be issued in update packets sent to the users. No matter how cutting edge, a piece of technology needs regular updating to keep up with the latest developments in its field.

Consumers usually opt for the most convenient, comprehensive options, which make adaptive maintenance a vital part of the technological upkeep. Regular system enhancement can ensure maximum user satisfaction. It is essential to understand that these procedures do not entirely account for the Total Cost of Ownership TCO of a piece of software.

The TCO is an essential tool that helps a company plan for any expenses incurred during the maintenance and deployment of a particular software. A lot of real-world factors can lead to a fluctuation in software maintenance costs.

An extremely dynamic market can require more modification than a particular software can handle. This leads to inflated software maintenance costs. These can be managed by scheduling the process of modification as per the ROI that the program offers. Server space is relatively expensive and hence programs that require large servers can prove to be expensive. A clear idea of the amount of data your program is expected to hold for a particular time helps in accurately estimating these costs.

A lack of server space would leave your program essentially debilitated, while a surplus of it would be a waste of money. Apart from these, there are numerous other real-world factors that can upset your software maintenance budget. DevOps is a highly effective programming method that helps in minimizing maintenance costs. Once the changes are made, DevOps ensures seamless transition, helping the users achieve a smoother transition.

Automatic site monitoring tools can save the hassle and time required to inspect the site for bugs regularly. Uptime Robot, Site 24 x 7, Tornimo, etc.

This makes the entire process smoother and hence saves the company a lot of time and resources. Software maintenance is a tricky yet integral part of the operations for any company. A well-documented, well looked after software is often the difference between a mediocre and a successful organization. How do you estimate the total costs of the solution which go far beyond the initial deployment?

Specifically, how do you estimate the software maintenance cost? How will you be able to factor in software maturity into the overall decision? Without reliable software maintenance cost estimation, your business will be unable to accurately assess the Total Cost of Ownership TCO , and how well can you rely on the projected ROI.

Software evolution is extremely difficult to factor into costing estimates. Department of Medical Informatics. E-mail: moc. Received Oct 25; Accepted Feb This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.

Abstract Introduction The software industry has had significant progress in recent years. Methods In this study, the factors affecting software maintenance cost were determined then were ranked based on their priority and after that effective ways to reduce the maintenance costs were presented.

Results and discussion Among Medical software maintenance team members, 40 were selected as sample. Open in a separate window. Figure 1. Taking into account the importance of software maintenance costs, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, is pursuing the following objectives in this paper: Identify the factors affecting the cost of software maintenance.

Prioritize each of the factors affecting the cost of software maintenance. Provide solutions to reduce the maintenance costs of medical software. List the factors affecting the cost of software maintenance. Table 2.

The list of measurement criteria and results after the interview. Table 3. Prioritized strategies. References 1. Boehm BW. Floris P, Vogt Harald H. A review of studies on expert estimation of software development effort.

The Journal of Systems and Software. Agile Software Development Quality Assurance. Koskinen J. Software Maintenance Costs. Macinka V. Marounek P. Simplified approach to effort estimation in software maintenance, University of economic, Prague, Faculty of information and statistics.

Journal of systems integration. A guality-based cost estimation model for the product line life cycle. Communication of the ACM. Nguyen Vu. University of Southern California, [ Google Scholar ]. Shen J. Somerville I. Software Engineering. International Computer Science Series. Masic I.

Medical informatics between technology, philosophy and science.