Chapter 13. System Operations and Maintenance Issues

At this point in the project lifecycle, development is complete, with the possible exception of some enhancement requests or corrections, and the system is in full production use. The development team has probably been disbanded, or dramatically changed to reflect the shift to production support. From the perspective of the developers, their work is largely finished. From the perspective of the customer and user community, the system's lifecycle has just begun.

This chapter covers issues relating to maintaining and supporting software systems. Because maintenance and support are often performed by vendors other than those who developed the system, issues relating to procuring maintenance services are discussed. This chapter also discusses setting up a Help Desk, which is the first echelon of assistance when difficulties arise with a new production system.