Design – Build – Run: Applied Practices and Principles for Production-Ready Software Development

Chapter 12. Application Maintenance

The application maintenance team is responsible for maintaining the application while it is in live service. Application maintenance functions generally include third-line support, issue resolution, bug fixing, application enhancements, testing, and release management. In some cases, application maintenance can be provided by the service delivery team. Irrespective of who does it, application maintenance is a vital part of the project lifecycle, drawing on everything put in place during design, development, testing, and deployment. Application maintenance is essentially a mirror of change control and defect management in construction. When you're providing support during testing and early live service, you're doing nothing more than application maintenance activities.

This chapter is organized into the following sections:

• The Application Maintenance Team — Provides a brief overview of the application maintenance team and its services. It also reinforces the message that while the system is still under construction, the development team essentially performs all the same activities and functions as the maintenance team.

• Application Maintenance Functions — Examines the types of activities the application maintenance team carries out as part of its day-to-day operations, including:

  • Defect analysis and fix-on-fail

  • Application enhancements and changes

  • Release and configuration management

• The Developer's Guide — The Developer's Guide provides a good basis ...