Questions tagged [maintenance]

The activities that occur after deployment of a software system. This includes making modifications to released systems, training, operating, and transitioning to support organizations.

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What is a software maintenance retainer contract?

I'm a one man software start up and need to consider a software maintenance retainer contract for a client. What is this, in simple terms? How could it benefit me or my client?
user avatar
124 votes
7 answers
14k views

What is the most effective way to add functionality to unfamiliar, structurally unsound code? [duplicate]

This is probably something everyone has to face during the development sooner or later. You have an existing code written by someone else, and you have to extend it to work under new requirements. ...
Coder's user avatar
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32 votes
13 answers
2k views

Problems (such as maintenance) in development with unpopular language

I'm developing some application with clojure(lisp) alone in my team. It starts as small application. No problem. But as it's having features and extending the area, it's becoming important program. I ...
Hybrid's user avatar
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8 votes
5 answers
1k views

How to introduce a new pattern into an existing codebase? [duplicate]

In my quest to better my development skills I learn new design patterns. In sample projects or personal projects it's really easy to adapt new patterns into my code. However at work I have a large ...
Robotsushi's user avatar
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3 votes
3 answers
10k views

How to store exception messages

How are exception messages commonly stored? for any domain. I'm thinking about this from a maintenance standpoint. if(!Condition1) throw new Exception("Some exception"); if(!Condition2) ...
Andy Hunt's user avatar
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0 votes
4 answers
3k views

Design Document From Code

I am not much familiar with documenting/System designing stuff. I have to maintain an application written in C# - working as windows service. However there is no documentation for this system which ...
UmerK's user avatar
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4 votes
3 answers
254 views

Transitioning from being a bespoke development to a COTS development house

Currently one of the major applications that our organisation produces would be regarded as bespoke software as it is specifically designed for one specific client organisation. However, we have ...
AlexC's user avatar
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2 votes
3 answers
845 views

Evaluating Software Maintenance

1. When to treat a software as deployed and when to start charging for maintenance ? In most of the cases the software we make is deployed on the web at early stages to enhance the testing process ...
Ruby On Tails's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
616 views

Programming paradigms and the maintenance developer [closed]

I was reading, Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering, which has a section of maintenance. Since, I'm have been a maintenance developer for years now, I was very interesting facts presented. Here'...
KaizenSoze's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
2k views

How to maintain a demo version of an application?

I need to be able to demo our production application to prospective clients. The way I have it setup today is simple. The demo application is an exact duplicate of the production system, except that ...
O.O's user avatar
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25 votes
9 answers
3k views

How should I go about learning a very large and complex application? [duplicate]

Being a young and fairly inexperienced developer recently employed by a "real" software company I'd like some opinions and pointers on how to do the following: Approaches on how to get familiar with ...
Dani's user avatar
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34 votes
7 answers
11k views

Becoming a "maintenance developer" [duplicate]

So I've kind of been getting angry about the current position I'm in, and I'd love to get other developers' input on this. I've been at my current place of employment for about 11 months now. When I ...
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3 votes
5 answers
1k views

What is the standard /an acceptable period of time to support a particular version of software?

Let's say version 2.4.x of Software Package X was released 2 years ago, and was sold up until about 6 months ago. Version 3.1.0 is now out (which fixes a lot of the issues with version 2.4.x), and is ...
Jordaan Mylonas's user avatar
28 votes
8 answers
8k views

When do you rebuild an application or keep on fixing the existing one [duplicate]

Possible Duplicates: When is a BIG Rewrite the answer? Have you ever been involved in a BIG Rewrite? I am at a customer where I have been tasked to fix a number of issues they have in their ...
Ghlouw's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
174 views

Has there been any formal work comparing ease of maintenance at the programming language level?

Is there any formal work attempting to measure ease of maintenance for complex programs, comparing at the programming language level? Are there any formal measures for ease of maintenance, at any ...
blueberryfields's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
483 views

How do you approach a new project where the code has already been written? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: How do you dive into large code bases? I'm about to take on maintenance and enhancements of a fairly large and complex Java EE project with a Javascript front end. I'm ...
DrBacchus's user avatar
8 votes
6 answers
2k views

Remake old web forms application in asp.net mvc [duplicate]

I've inherited the code maintenance of a complex web site for a customer that continuously requests enhancements for it. This application took years to develop and I'm facing increased difficulties to ...
Hfux's user avatar
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12 votes
12 answers
1k views

What to do with a not well organized application? [duplicate]

I'm a newly graduate programmer and just got hired before my graduation. In the office, I used to create and revise modules of some applications developed by other programmers in our company. The ...
kazinix's user avatar
  • 333
4 votes
3 answers
2k views

How to decide maintenance cost/terms for freelance work? [closed]

I am a JavaScript programmer and am planning to take Freelance projects related to JavaScript effects for the web. Recently a potential client approached me to create a JavaScript effect for his ...
Cracker's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
80 views

Branching an application setup/installer across versions?

I am wondering whether I should branch our installer script/project-file (we use InnoSetup) with each application release or whether I should keep one in installer script that generates the setup for ...
Martin Ba's user avatar
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0 votes
4 answers
338 views

Deciphering foreign code [duplicate]

What is the best strategy to go about understanding some one else's code for a medium sized project, if the code is not well documented and does not adhere to many coding standards?
rrazd's user avatar
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76 votes
12 answers
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Is there a point to including a "change log" in every code file when you are using version control?

I was under the impression that a version control system eliminated the need to have "change logs" plastered everywhere in the code. I've often seen the continued use of change logs, including big ...
Wayne Molina's user avatar
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6 votes
6 answers
697 views

Should I just slog it out or discuss with my PM?

Having "completed" my task, I have recently been assigned by my PM to work on a maintenance project by another PM. In this other project, the client wants to add new features and I'm assigned to do a ...
blizpasta's user avatar
  • 223
21 votes
12 answers
2k views

How can a maintenance-only programmer get a raise? [closed]

I have been working as a maintenance programmer for a couple of years and am wondering if there is such a thing as a raise for maintenance programmer? I ask because responsibilities don't get wider, ...
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7 votes
3 answers
307 views

How to manage maintenance

There are lots of great books and resources out there about managing new software developments, but very little that I've seen about managing ongoing maintenance of software systems. I'm not talking ...
Craig Schwarze's user avatar
37 votes
10 answers
22k views

Why are websites (even this one) sometimes "Down for Maintenance"?

I have personally never done this. I don't understand why so many sites do, if you do your development on a development server why would you ever need to shut down your production site? I have always ...
JD Isaacks's user avatar
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6 votes
3 answers
629 views

Cost of maintenance depending on paradigms

Is there any data on which paradigms allow for code which is easier/cheaper to maintain? Certainly, independantly of the chosen paradigm, good design is cheaper to maintain than bad, but there should ...
Anto's user avatar
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25 votes
12 answers
3k views

Industry has no place for passionate programmers? [closed]

I've been interning at a place where my manager believes that if you are in a, product company, then you generally spend time tweaking the product and sometimes adding some features, or service ...
Jungle Hunter's user avatar
24 votes
1 answer
2k views

What is the effect of creating unit tests during development on time to develop as well as time spent in maintenance activities?

I'm a consultant and I am going to introduce unit tests to all developers at my client site. My goal is to ensure that all new applications should have unit tests for all classes created. The client ...
jgauffin's user avatar
  • 4,512
5 votes
9 answers
637 views

Have you worked with poorly designed application? [closed]

I have been asked to work in a Java web application that is very very poorly designed. In the name of "making this easy", they have come up with their own "framework" to make things extremely ...
Vinoth Kumar C M's user avatar
37 votes
2 answers
3k views

How do you keep your basic skills from atrophy? [closed]

Coding is only one aspect to professional programming. My job requires me to code, but it also requires me to do other things for extended periods – sometimes days or weeks go by when I'm not just ...
kojiro's user avatar
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1 vote
3 answers
161 views

How far back do you use your version control and for what reason?

Typically when i work on a project i only go back a few days or the last major change when i decide to do something drastic. I sometimes notice i broke a test or a feature and overlooked it for a few ...
user avatar
20 votes
3 answers
2k views

Is there a measure of code rot? [duplicate]

I'm dealing, again, with a messy C++ application, tons of classes with confusing names, objects have pointers into each other and all over, longwinded Boost and STL data types, etc. (Pause and ...
DarenW's user avatar
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64 votes
11 answers
4k views

How do you stay productive when dealing with extremely badly written code?

I don't have much experience in working in software industry, being self-taught and having participated in open source before deciding to take a job. Now that I work for money, I also have to deal ...
Dan's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
6k views

Technical documentation of Android app

You are joining the development team of an existing Android app and are handed a technical document about it. What information would you like it to have?
hpique's user avatar
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46 votes
8 answers
4k views

Code maintenance: keeping a bad pattern when extending new code for being consistent, or not?

I have to extend an existing module of a project. I don't like the way it has been done (lots of anti-pattern involved, like copy/pasted code). I don't want to perform a complete refactor for many ...
Guillaume's user avatar
  • 2,147
10 votes
3 answers
386 views

Does abandon-ware code ever properly die?

It is my impression that, over time, more and more open source code is generated, added to various free or partially free repositories, and then generally abandoned. Are there any generally accepted ...
blueberryfields's user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
981 views

Recommendations on integrating DI/IoC container into an existing application

I am now faced with integrating an inversion of control (IoC) container into an existing application, and I'm looking for some recommendations on how that can most easily be accomplished with the ...
Kaleb Pederson's user avatar
13 votes
5 answers
1k views

Evolution in coding standards, how do you deal with them?

How do you deal with evolution in the coding standards / style guide in a project for the existing code base? Let's say someone on your team discovered a better way of object instantiation in the ...
Ward Bekker's user avatar
7 votes
4 answers
225 views

After an outsourced/offshored application is "completed", who will do the maintenance?

What is the typical arrangement for the maintenance of applications that are not developed in-house? Note: by maintenance, I mean bug fixes, optimizations, small modifications and future extensions.
Dimitri C.'s user avatar
  • 1,336
33 votes
7 answers
8k views

Who should pay for fixes/bugs? [closed]

So I just started freelancing both in desktop/web development and this client who already accepted my work, and payed me keeps coming back at me each time he finds a bug etc. And I have found myself ...
Agush's user avatar
  • 423
10 votes
9 answers
517 views

How have you found, refined and maintained your coding style?

Recently, I've been switching between several projects and development environments. The expectations for coding style in each is different. Now, my question is three part, the first, just of ...
kowsheek's user avatar
  • 623
37 votes
9 answers
6k views

Real world pitfalls of introducing F# into a large codebase and engineering team [closed]

I'm CTO of a software firm with a large existing codebase (all C#) and a sizable engineering team. I can see how certain parts of the code would be far easier to write in F#, resulting in faster ...
8 votes
7 answers
5k views

Is recursion an instance of being "too clever" when programming?

I've read several books and learned through experience that optimizing code to the point where it is inscrutable, or coming up with an extremely fast but extremely complex solution to a problem is not ...
Macy Abbey's user avatar
11 votes
4 answers
405 views

What are good approaches to cleaning up old projects?

I've got some software that I wrote around 2 years ago and needs some features added to it. I've realised that it's in an awful mess, and I have the urge to move everything around, tidy up, etc. I've ...
billy.bob's user avatar
  • 6,529
16 votes
6 answers
784 views

How can I judge whether a project is particularly complex or if I'm just slow in picking it up?

I'm making little progress on a major project. The source is massive, many layers of objects, macaroni code, double-diamond graphs of multiple inheritance, half-baked features frozen when the ...
DarenW's user avatar
  • 4,433
1 vote
4 answers
204 views

Moving Old Projects To Newer IDE's and Libraries [closed]

At work we have a few older projects that are stuck on .NET 1.1 and VS 2003. While these are probably to much work now to move forward I'm wondering if the effort to keep our newer projects up to date ...
Mike's user avatar
  • 412
-1 votes
1 answer
243 views

Tips for a novice PHP developer to drive down long-term maintenance costs [closed]

I'm an experienced Java developer who is just starting up a project for an NGO. I will be working on the project for at least 6 months, following which the NGO will have to pay or find a volunteer to ...
iftheshoefritz's user avatar
15 votes
10 answers
6k views

Are optional parameters helpful or a hindrance to application maintenance? [closed]

As stated in the title, are optional parameters, such as those used in C# helpful or are they a hindrance to application maintenance and should be avoided as they can make the code harder to ...
rjzii's user avatar
  • 11.3k
14 votes
11 answers
624 views

Should you fix preexisting defects while working on something else?

Conundrum: During the course of working on a new feature or fixing a defect, you find a legacy problem in code. What should you do? Fix it and risk altering the behavior of the code. It has either ...
Corey's user avatar
  • 241