A human information processing perspective on software maintenance

Resources allocated to software maintenance constitute a major portion of the total lifecycle cost of a system and can affect the ability of a firm to react to dynamic environments. This paper illustrates how the human information processing model can be used to develop a strong theoretical foundation for describing factors affecting software maintenance. This foundation is then used to synthesize recent empirical findings and to direct attention towards empirical questions which need investigation. In addition, the human information processing model is shown to provide explanatory as well as descriptive power, poviding a basis for managerial action and recommendations aimed at decreasing maintenance effort which can decrease maintenance cost and increase the responsiveness of maintenance to changing organizational needs.