Research report on the importance of Software Maintenance and Configuration Management.
Software upkeep can be defined as a procedure of changing a software system or module after distributing to the specific faults, recovering performances and adapting to the changed environment. Software maintenance is further considered as a life cycle for software. Additionally, the considerations of software maintenance have not time-honoured the same rating of conservation in most organisations. Generally, software maintenance has less value than software development in most organisations. This is changing day by day, as organisations struggle to take the more output from software development investment by keeping take care of software working as long-term (Subrahmanyam, 2009). Open source pattern has brought a further devotion to the problems to maintain any software artefacts developed by clients.
Any software upkeep is mandatory to ensure that the software will continue to please the requirements of the customer. Support is appropriate to software that is established using any of the software life cycle model (for instance, spiral or linear). Software products can change because of helpful and no significant software actions (Boudreau and Lakhani, 2011). Maintenance must be achieved to validate the following relations:
Five essential characteristics, which embrace the upkeep activities:
Moreover, Configuration management (CM) strongly emphasise on regulating the consistency of a product’s performance along with pertaining its usefulness and physical potentials with its supplies, design, and working information all through its lifecycle. The attributes of CM also validates convey of software systems by regulating the development of operations in a quick and professional manner. Furthermore, it is also used by various administrative bodies to verify the improvement in gears and safeguarding of an audit trail (Schonwalder, Bjorklund and Shafer, 2010). Comprehensive incorporation of the following practices also facilitates the developers in examining the impact of outline variations over the creation’s functionality.
Configuration management is a long way arrangement, which helps in enhancing the comfort of scalability by reducing the operational time to make extra incomes for the without relating the user-prone errors. The proposal of intimidation to set up and implementation by CM empowers the plan of starting with a small and leading to the door of chances. It will further lead to the removal of the human concept layer after positioning the practices in a conceivable manner (Sarma, Redmiles and Van Der Hoek, 2008).
Including this, Square Enix is a company, which was originated on September 22nd 1975, its video game evolving and dispensing company top recognised for its Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts “acting game” franchise (Arakawa, et al., 2016). This research paper will emphasise the disaster befalling one of the biggest franchise games in the history of the gaming industry due to the absence of configuration management and how it affected the maintenance of the system.
Software maintenance first addressed by Meir Mr Lehman and development of operations in 1969. It took 20 years in the formulation of Lehman’s Laws (Lehman 1997). The central part of the following study delivers that software upkeep is an evolutionary growth, whose results aid in understanding happenings to the system over a period (Jansen, Finkelstein and Brinkkemper, 2009). Lehman verified that operations continue to progress over time. As improve, more it grows multifaceted unless some work like code refactoring decreases the complexity.
In the 1970s, a well-known survey analysis by Lientz and Swanson uncovered the central portion of life-cycle costs, which were potentially used for maintenance purposes. They considered maintenance activities into four modules:
Software Configuration Management (SCM) history tells that computing can be mapped back as early as in the 1950s, also applied to software development for hardware improvement and prevention control. Physical components are founded in software like- cards, tapes and other media. Manual operation was a first Software Configuration Management.
The fields of SCM are:
Moreover, Square-Enix released Final Fantasy 14 version 1.0 and that was a whole disaster almost got the corporation bankrupt and ruined the image of the organisation. Final Fantasy 14 version “1.0” hurled in 2010 to a very negative reaction from mutually fans and press. FFXIV received negative reviews from most of the well-known and respected gaming critics, one of the cruellest reviews done by PC gamer IGN quoting “this game is a light, slow, heavy-grinding MMO crippled by the horrifying interface and nonsensical boundaries with massive bugs and glitches” (Bainbridge, 2016). Moreover, IGN reviews “Below a sea of interface and presentation matters that delay the experience at closely every single step making it a world not worth visiting” 5.5 rating.
The following research study is undertaken to validate the considerations of the issues mentioned above:
Cost: Many research studies proposed that software maintenance takes 60% to 80% of value in whole progress life cycle; these surveys also report that upkeep costs are mainly due to improvements, rather than corrections.
Impact Analysis: One of the most important in software maintenance is to find the effects of a proposed alteration on the rest of the system. Impact analysis is the action of assessing the likely impact of a change with the plan of reducing immediate side effects. The task includes evaluating the correctness of a projected change and risks related with the conclusion, plus the approximations from the impact on goods, energy and enlargement (Chen, Ali Babar and Ali, 2009).
Corrective Changes: One of the significant vital concerns is corrective changes because it is hard to find the right place to make the moves. It can be challenging to identify the code base. If the initial design is reduced a minute change might maintain architecture changes that take a lot of time. If there has been a whole workaround of one problem, then the next is even stiffer to blow. Design blunders are tough to overhaul since it receipts a ration of time and understanding of the whole code base and is linked to risks.
Adoptive changes: Adoptive change is frequently not accessible due to lack of information about what the software is being changed to. The various facts of the new skill to adjust to being hard to take hold. Similarly, influence analysis and discovering interfaces to the new things are complicated. Problems due to unbalanced initial design are a matter of concern.
Program Comprehension: Another critical issue is program comprehension which includes that extension amount of time should be expended by maintenance engineers to read and understand the code, the related papers to have a well perspective on its logic, purpose and construction to maintain a portion of software and to improve the quality of software (Chen, Ali Babar and Ali, 2009).
In addition to this, some potential issues of software maintenance have also considered this study, which is mentioned below:
Conceptual Issues: At the heart of upkeep is its very definition. In one surveys a comprehensive description was employed. Such a definition contains enhancements and operational support as part of conservation along with monotonous correcting and problem documentation and determination. Additional, the surveys in the broader and profitable study and weapons review included as care emergency fixes, monotonous debugging, and housings of changes in file/data input, house to hardware/software alteration, improvements, certification, development, and recording for competence (Wasserman, 2010).
Measurement Issues: Beyond maintenance is the matter of how to measure a system. There are not concerned here with systems measurement in general slightly worried with system measurement in general. Instead, it is concerned with analysis during upkeep itself. The surveys indicated that systems with very like sizes revealed entirely different patterns of upkeep activity
The scale of effort: The argument in the past that is the percentage of maintenance is gradually growing. A survey does not stand out. The statistics specified that the portion is comparatively stable in most organisations-about 50% of the effort. However, there are organisations in the examples which report abruptly increasing percentages over a two year, the defendants in several parts specified that controls are used by management to diminish the interest. This, it results that the gauge of the effort is severely dependent on the organisational environment and the collection of application systems that are developed and supported at a given time.
Organizational Issues: In the past attention has centred on the organisation of upkeep with a systems cluster. Question, which arises that it should be detached or shared with development. However, assumed the growing interest and influence of the employer community, it might be well to reflect more global subjects what the part of the operators in maintenance and improvement is? After all, this is true today in some minicomputer created online systems.
Productivity Issues: An original investigation emphasise has been the output of the computer operator and to smaller extent predictors in the system organisation. A variety of methods have been devised. The surveys disclose only limited use (Wasserman, 2010).
Some considerable challenges associated with the attributes of Configuration Management are proposed below:
As discussed above, there are many limitations comes in software upkeep. Software maintenance is widely-known part of SDLC life cycle nowadays. SM outlooks for all the alterations and updating done after the distribution of software products. Here are many explanations, why the modification is obligatory. These are the points which have no control over the biasing and skewing of software maintenance result and configuration management.
In addition to this, some significant limitation of the Square Enix are presented below:
The outcome of the study on software maintenance and configuration management gives a good reason why software maintenance and configuration management is so important. Upholding system software is similarly important as Web Application Development. It keeps solutions strong to deal with varying technical and business environment. Generally, IT service providers suggest their customers go for software upkeep services for the consistent and improved performance of the system (Charland and Leroux, 2011). As per Mr Robert Glass, writer of the ‘Truths and Fallacies of Software Engineering’, when it originates to software, 60% costing is for upkeep. Even from total upkeep costing, 60% is for solution enhancement.
A Square Enix released Final Fantasy 14 version 1.0 and was a complete disaster almost got the company bankrupt and ruined the image of the organisation. Final Fantasy XIV is an enormously multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) established and circulated by Square Enix. Naoki Yoshida directed and produced this game, it was unconfined worldwide for Microsoft Windows, and PlayStation 3 in August 2013 and version sorted for PlayStation 4 and macros later. The innovative Final Fantasy XIV out in September 2010 to the mostly undesirable meeting (Schatten, Tomi?i? and ?uri?, 2015). President of Square Enix President Yoichi Wada declared that a new team, controlled by Yoshida, would take over and effort to issues are fixed.
Overview of Literature Review
Final Fantasy 14: Director Naoki Yoshida gives a presentation.Creators Conference today to excavation into the behind-the-scenes layer of why the first type of Final Fantasy 14 unsuccessful and how Yoshida and team achieved to preference up against the pieces. With the history of Final Fantasy 14, Yoshida examines that the game hurled initially in 2010 to a tremendously adverse response from equally fans and press (Hilgard, Engelhardt and Bartholow, 2013). Met critic ordinary of 48 and agonised from unbalanced servers up to 400 smashes per day! — The absence of content and negligible story in a permit known for having the plan as one of its essential parts.
Yoshida Opinions to Three Main Reasons for Final Fantasy 14’s Failure in that First Form:
Review of Related Research
Final Fantasy 14 gets tremendously adverse response from both the parties- press and fans. Yoshida says that there are three main reasons on the failure of Final Fantasy 14-unhealthy obsession with graphical quality, the absence of MMO information and involvement between the creators of the game, square’s mindset that every single difficulty could be repaired. After the big failure of Final Fantasy 14, Yoshida was dragged into the Final Fantasy 14 team in December 2010 and specified the distasteful assignment of fixing this extremely wrecked game (Perreault, 2015). In direction to shot Final Fantasy 14 round, Yoshida had to upset the team and the technique for growth they had employed before. Yoshida rationalised the design process significantly. Yoshida enforced fewer-experienced supervise to play the new game over and over, to make sure they unspoken conclusions and were attentive on the gameplay knowledge above all else.
Outcome of the Analysis and Review
Yoshida told Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn was the first manufacturing — the main MMO to ever be recreated and re-launched. Altogetherexpressed, his team achieved this achievement in remarkably short two years and eight months during on-going facility and appraised for the original. By contrast, Yoshida supposed it’s mutual for a massively multiplayer game to be in growth for as extended as five years.
After the disappointment of Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 and the fairly failure of Final Fantasy XIII, times were justly dire for Square Enix. Discussions of the corporation going bankrupt and the track of large but now obsolete developers such as THQ seemed fewer like fantasy and extra like a final, forbidding truth for Square Enix. The Operating profits of Square went from the damage of 4.9B Japanese Yen (roughly -$48.3M) to proceeds of 7.8bn yen (roughly +$76.9M) from 2012 to 2013 (Bainbridge, 2013). In non-accountant terms, that is a massive swing of cash flow that will allow the company to remain afloat instead of capsizing.
Yoshida supposed that Square Enix himself had refined numerous lessons from the struggle with Final Fantasy 14. Although the primary game was a huge disappointment, it was a substantial chance for the producer to reassess its approaches and grow and this is a start.
Conclusion
As per the discussions and analysis made above, it can interfere that software maintenance is significant for keeping working on software as long as possible. In addition to this configuration management lights on starting and upholding the steadiness of an invention’s presentation, and its useful and natural qualities with its necessities, project, and working material throughout its life. By analysing the report, the conclusion comes that each trick cannot be repaired. Final Fantasy 14 had main faults in its enterprise from the beginning but supposed that when it was up successively, would be able to figure out a resolution with that outline one technique to another. It’s a big mistake. It concluded that proper planning is crucial for any development.
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