4. Perfective maintenance

The system has been in place and running fine for a while.

However, over time, the end user will often find tweaks or minor improvements which could be made to improve the way the system works.

Examples of making the system 'more perfect' include

  • A better data input screen or form
  • A more advanced help system
  • Tweaks to the code so it is more responsive
  • Handling error conditions in a more useful way e.g. instead of a cryptic "Error 3045 occurred" warning, the screen actually explains what that means and what the user can do about it.
  • Re-organising data sets within a database so they can be searched faster or use less storage
  • Providing shortcuts commands that experts can use instead of the slower standard menu system

These tweaks are not major enough to prompt a complete new system, so the maintenance team improve the system to suit. This is called 'perfective maintenance'

 

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Click on this link: Perfective maintenance