Understanding maintainability

All software systems evolve over time. New enhancements and bug fixes must be planned and rolled out on a periodic basis. The term maintainability refers to the ease with which the software solution or component, or even a code file, can be modified or updated without incurring significant maintenance costs.

There are two major categorizations of maintainability: proactive and reactive.

Proactive maintainability

Proactive maintainability refers to the adherence to software development best practices while writing code for the various components of a solution. This includes both the modularity and testability of the components. The code should be easily changed without breaking the build or introducing any regression issues. In the longer term, it should be able to support enhancements with the addition of more features and capabilities.

Managing technical debt for a product is very important. Owing to numerous constraints, coding issues or...