Think of your application like a car. If something breaks, it needs immediate fixing. But you don't want to wait until you're stranded on the roadside. Instead, you schedule regular maintenance to catch issues before they become problems. However, maintaining an application is even more complex. It's like not only keeping your car running smoothly, but also upgrading it constantly with new features, adapting it to evolving terrains, and ensuring it meets all the latest safety standards. It's a dynamic ride that requires constant attention and innovation.
Welcome to application maintenance, the most underestimated part of the Software Development Life Cycle. Let’s dive into yet another practical approach for setting up maintenance policies and processes in order to make sure your application continues to deliver the intended business value (and staying out of trouble…😉).
First off, let’s have a look at the 4 types of maintenance in the context of Low-Code development:
Maintaining applications built on a Low-Code platform involves a comprehensive approach to ensure their functionality, performance, and adaptability in a dynamic business environment. One crucial aspect is corrective maintenance, which focuses on fixing defects and bugs that are discovered after the application is deployed. Despite the robust nature of Low-Code platforms, issues can still arise due to unforeseen user interactions or environmental changes. Corrective maintenance is essential to address these problems promptly, ensuring the application remains reliable and efficient for end-users.
Equally important is adaptive maintenance, which involves making modifications to the application in response to changes in the external environment. This could include updates to comply with new regulations, compatibility with new hardware or software, or changes in the business process(es). The flexibility of Low-Code platforms allows for rapid adaptation, enabling businesses to stay agile and responsive to market demands. Adaptive maintenance ensures that the application continues to meet the evolving needs of the organization without extensive redevelopment.
In addition to adapting to external changes, perfective maintenance is vital for enhancing the application's functionality and performance. This type of maintenance involves refining the application to improve user experience, optimize performance, and add new features based on user feedback. With the iterative nature of Low-Code development, perfective maintenance can be seamlessly integrated into the development lifecycle, allowing for continuous improvement and innovation.
Lastly, preventive maintenance plays a proactive role in the long-term health of the application. This involves regular updates and improvements to prevent potential issues before they occur. Preventive maintenance includes activities such as code refactoring, updating dependencies, and performance tuning. By anticipating and mitigating potential problems, preventive maintenance helps to maintain the application's stability and performance, reducing the likelihood of future disruptions.
Examining these four types of maintenance, it becomes clear that maintaining applications built on a Low-code platform offers significant advantages over traditional coded application maintenance, especially in terms of speed, ease of use, adaptability, and scalability:
Speed
Low-Code platforms streamline and accelerate the maintenance process. The visual development interface and pre-built components allow for rapid updates and bug fixes, significantly reducing the time required for corrective and adaptive maintenance compared to traditional coding environments.
Ease of Use
Low-Code platforms are user-friendly and accessible to individuals without extensive programming knowledge. This democratizes maintenance, enabling a broader range of team members to participate in the process, reducing reliance on specialized developers, and allows for direct business participation and collaboration.
Adaptability
Low-Code platforms are designed for flexibility, allowing applications to be easily modified to meet changing business requirements. This simplifies adaptive maintenance, enabling quick updates and integration with other systems, unlike traditional coded applications, which often require more extensive changes.
Scalability
Low-Code platforms offer scalable solutions that can grow with the business. New features and functionalities can be added without extensive redevelopment, making it easier to scale applications compared to traditional coded applications, which might require significant modifications to achieve the same scalability.
So, where do we start? Fortunately, there's already an excellent framework available for effectively managing, supporting, and continuously improving applications: The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). Here are some key ITIL best practices to consider in the context of Low-Code development when setting up maintenance processes:
Given that resources are often scarce and capacity is under pressure, balancing issue resolution, problem prevention, and enhancement implementation in an application requires a well-structured approach. When starting a Low-Code project, the deployment team is also responsible for maintaining the application. Now, imagine the application becomes a big success, generating excitement and necessitating the launch of a new project. Suddenly, there's an "Error 404: Team Not Found" 😉.
Balancing productivity within a 40-hour work week requires acknowledging that only 20-25 hours are typically spent on delivering intended work. The remaining time often goes to unplanned tasks, setbacks, social interactions, and other distractions, which is completely normal. The key is to plan for this when scheduling work. Here's how to allocate your time effectively during a timebox period, such as Sprints:
This approach allows you to realistically plan your work while leaving room for unforeseen events. If these events don't occur or there are fewer bugs, the reserved time can be reallocated to planned work.
At a strategic level, it is beneficial to divide work topics into distinct buckets. This allows for better allocation of time and resources for planned work. Since end users are the primary users of the application, their feedback is crucial for delivering value. Keeping them engaged and satisfied is paramount. However, it is impossible to meet all their needs while ensuring the application remains future-proof and maintains high-quality standards. To address this, you can allocate work as follows:
This approach helps balance immediate user needs with the long-term sustainability and quality of the application.
Finally, ensure you properly promote the success of your application. This is not just about sharing learnings and inspiring others but also about keeping your stakeholders engaged. While it’s easy to get caught up in new, exciting projects and overlook this step during the maintenance phase, it is crucial for several reasons:
Engagement ensures the application remains a valuable and dynamic asset to the organization.
So, how can you best organize this promotion of applications? Here’s a practical approach:
Communicate Success Stories
Showcase Metrics and Analytics
Organize Demonstrations and Workshops
Use Visual and Interactive Content
Celebrate Milestones and Achievements
Foster a Feedback Loop
And there you have it—the final article in our series on the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) phases! I hope this series has helped you organize the various aspects involved in setting up or perfecting your SDLC. When done correctly, it will enhance your innovation efforts while significantly reducing costs. Here are the links to the other articles in the series.