When I sent the original message, I admit that I had a particular 'type'
of organisation in mind - I didn't really consider 'IT' companies -
Sun, Microsoft etc. I thought of businesses which uses information
technology as a mean to an end - a significant database application,
or a tailored stock control system, or custom financial/legal software;
organisations which do not have a particularly large IT operations in
comparison to other business units within a company. I am worried
about the introduction of error into existing software systems and
the general degredation of software quality. Maintenance should, in
my opinion, be viewed as an activity that is 'prestige' simply because
it is so important, performed by those who have expertise and who have
been involved with original developments. In a small IT department,
where custom s/w experitise is scarce, one way to nurture it is through
maintenance tasks... where the maintainer may make 'economic' judgements
about replacement/changing (how much time will this take? how much time
have we got? how 'hard' does it look to change? how much will I learn?)
The ability to make such decisions surely stems from expertise...
--
Chris Douce
Research Officer, IT Research Institute, Brighton, UK.
