Mantenibilidad del Software. Consideraciones para su especificación y validación

Abstract

Currently, all organizations support their business processes by incorporating software products. These products over time must be modified for different reasons. While the product is in operation, it will require maintenance. Given the criticality of the maintainability of the products, it is very important that each time the requirements of a new software are specified, it is clearly established what to do to ensure that it can be maintained over time. This article presents an investigation whose objective is to present some important considerations of the maintenance process, which must be taken into account when specifying the maintainability attribute, in such a way that later it can be validated that the product is actually maintainable. For this, some challenges of the maintenance process, metrics associated with the maintainability of the products and some recommendations to get its correct specification are presented. The main conclusion obtained is that organizations should collect over time, historical data related to the adjustments and changes made in the product. In addition, given the relevance of the maintainability attribute, in the specification of requirements should include functional and process aspects that allow objectively validate later if a product is maintainable or not.