Talk:Software maintenance

message: Hello all,
I included (for now) a list of (one) techniques for software maintenance.  In the future if some good souls were to add to the list, perhaps the list of techniques could be broken off into its own page, since the current page treats this subject (as it should) on more of a top-level.  A couple more can likely be gleaned from the latest edition of Page-Jones, and maybe a few more from the Best Practices section of the book Rapid Development by Steve McConnell, and maybe from his other book Code Complete.  I urge caution, since these practices could more properly fall into the program coding stage, or earlier stages.  Vonkje 18:38, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: What about techniques?

message: Please replace the content of the article with User:Buidhe paid/Software maintenace. Reason: rewrite based on better sources, add sections about the development -> maintenance -> obsolescence cycle, change cycles, workforce, etc. The current article is mostly unsourced. Buidhe paid (talk) 01:52, 7 May 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Edit request 

message: Summary of changes as a result of the Wiki99 project (before, after, diff):
*Complete rewrite of the article based on scholarly sources
*Added sections about:
**The process of how software goes from release to different cycles of maintenance and obsolescence
**How software is changed during maintenance
**Workforce
**Research
*Added information about maintenance of free and open source software
For other editors to consider doing in the future:
*Help me get the article to GA status
*Potentially expand with more content, if more sources can be found
*Consider a merge with software evolution, since the difference is inconsistently defined, blurry, and many sources are about "software maintenance and evolution"
Buidhe paid (talk) 06:19, 9 May 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wiki99 summary 

message: I am also part of the Wiki99 project developing this article. Buidhe above did a major rewrite, and I think it looks great. The overall Wiki99 project has a theme of open source software. Buidhe did not readily identify this theme in the wiki literature review to develop this article, so I asked some academic colleagues to suggest a paper. Here is one that I like.
I would like to include content about maintaining open source software. These researchers interviewed people who maintain this kind of content.
*
Here is my own summary of the paper:
#The team interviewed 37 developers for an average of an hour each
#They attempted to recruit diversity in the interviewee pool, both in terms of demographics of the developer and the class of F/OSS project they maintained
#Many of the interviewees reported that the project they maintained depended on volunteer labor
#Differences between maintaining open versus closed software include the culture of workers getting paid by paying customers versus volunteer developers in a socio-technical system for non-paying users
#Developing F/OSS requires significant socializing, trust, giving thanks, and community membership, including in volunteer contexts
#Recognition can lead to F/OSS projects getting more support; lack of recognition even for popular projects can mean less support
#Project coordination is a challenge when there are no staff for key elements of an ecosystem
I am posting this here on the talk page because I am paid in this project as described at Wikipedia:WikiProject University of Virginia/2023 Wiki99 for open source software, so I am editing more slowly with more discussion than I do with other projects. For now, I am just floating this additional perspective for software outside commercial corporate development.  Bluerasberry (talk) 21:45, 10 May 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: Although this is an interesting study, I'm not sure about WP:DUE. I've tried to avoid citing primary sources, in part because of concerns about replication and generalizability. Additionally, I did add a couple sentences about FOSS projects that are already in the article. Buidhe paid (talk) 22:17, 10 May 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Open source software workforce