A life-cycle cost viewpoint of software maintainability

Abstract The dynamic and ever-changing characteristics of software requirements make life-cycle costs for today's software very expensive. The cost of post-operational maintenance and modification often exceeds the original development cost. Software which is easily modifiable is not built naturally; it must be carefully contracted for and the development of modifiable software, its support tools and its documentation, must be judiciously managed and tested. However, without resorting to technological innovation of RD techniques for building modifiability into software; planning for post-delivery test facilities and support tools; software maintenance documentation; planning and review to assure that the product evolved support modifiability.