Large software systems usually have a long lifetime. For example, military or infrastructure systems, such as air traffic control systems, may have a lifetime of 30 years or more. Business systems are often more than 10 years old. Enterprise software costs a lot of money, so a company has to use a software system for many years to get a return on its investment. Successful software products and apps may have been introduced many years ago with new versions released every few years. For example, the first version of Microsoft Word was introduced in 1983, so it has been around for more than 30 years.
During their lifetime, operational software systems have to change if they are to emain useful. Business changes and changes to user expectations ...
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