THE INFLUENCE OF THE INFORMATION-SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT APPROACH ON MAINTENANCE

This is an exploratory field study that examines the influence of selected system development methodologies on maintenance time. A number of factors related to the early stages of information systems development and to information systems maintenance were investigated: development methodology, maintenance time and its allocation, number of users, their understanding and involvement, system documentation, software quality, system characteristics, project controllability system size and age, organization of the maintenance function, use of tools, ability of personnel, stability of organization, and others. The survey findings do not support the proposition that the application of modern information systems development methodology decreases maintenance time. However, some benefits are identified. Time spent on emergency error correction, as well as the number of system failures, decreased significantly with the application of modem methodology Systems developed with modern methodologies seem to facilitate making greater changes in functionality as the systems age.