Title: STPCH: a framework for planning of software maintenance and support projects

Authors: Shivani Bali; Kishor Kunal

Addresses: Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, Delhi, India ' HCL Services Ltd., India

Abstract: Business scenario of information technology (IT) industry has changed a lot. Software maintenance and support projects' counts are increasing day by day. Most of the past theories and studies have concentrated on project management for the development of software. This paper discusses the processes and standards used by IT companies during the planning phase of software maintenance and support projects. Using focused interviews of project managers (PMs) from IT companies, the paper seeks to highlight key points of the processes, techniques, and tools used by PMs. In the process, the paper attempts to find out and examine differences between development and maintenance projects at different stages of project planning. The purpose is to construct a new perspective on the project hiring cycle, costing, performance metrics, efforts utilised and other key indicators during the phases of planning. The proposed framework to encompass the study on support or maintenance project planning is acronymed as STPCH.

Keywords: software maintenance; support projects; estimated time interval; reliability; cost management; staff hiring cycle; shift management; co-location; maintenance planning; project planning; information technology; IT industry; project management; software development.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSETA.2015.075597

International Journal of Software Engineering, Technology and Applications, 2015 Vol.1 No.2/3/4, pp.135 - 144

Received: 20 May 2014
Accepted: 10 Dec 2014

Published online: 30 Mar 2016 *

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