The document discusses the key activities involved in software maintenance problem resolution and fix distribution. For problem resolution, it describes categorizing, prioritizing, reproducing, fixing, and scheduling problems. It also discusses identifying the right developer, documentation, and measurements. For fix distribution, it outlines choosing a distribution method like individual fixes or patch bundles, composing fixes, testing, and scheduling releases. It concludes with challenges, best practices, and effectiveness measures for both problem resolution and fix distribution.

1. SOFTWARE
MAINTENANCE
UNIT-II

2. Problem Resolution
• Introduction
• High level overview of activities in problem resolution
-Categorising the problem
-Prioritising the problem
-Reproducing the problem
-Making and testing the fix
-Scheduling the fix for release

3. Categorising the problem

4. Categorising the problem

5. Prioritising the problem
• Severity of the problem
-Severity 1
-Severity 2
-Severity 3
• Complexity of the problem

6. Severity 1 problems in various product types

8. Complexity of the problem

9. Identifying the right developer for fixing the
problem
• What is the severity of the problem?
• Is the problem in a highly specialised area?
• Does the problem require significant inter-group(or even
inter-company)co-ordination?
• Is any special customer (or rapport) needed?
• Are the appropriate skillsets identified?
• Who is available?

10. Reproducing the problem
• Performance problem
• Memory leaks and memory initialisation issues
• Approaches used, when problem does not reproduce by the means
above?
• Getting a snapshot(like memory dump) of the customer environment
from the customer at the time when the problem occurred
• Sending a specially instrumented code that is run in a controlled
fashion at the customer site
• Performing remote diagnostics
• Site visit by development teams

11. Making the fix and testing it
• Is the product behaviour in consonance with the documentation?
• If the product behaviour is in consonance with the documentation ,is the behaviour
right?
• What changes would I have to bring about in the product to satisfy the expectation
of the user?
• Are there alternative ways in which I can accomplish what the user wants?
• If the changes are made for each of the alternatives, will it cause other
implications for either this user or for other user?
• How can I test that the proposed changes would accomplish what the user wants?
• How can I ensure that the proposed change does not cause any new problems?

13. Three types of documentation &
Scheduling for release
• Problem rediscovery documentation
• Status documentation
• Configuration management documentation

15. Skill sets needed for the various roles during
problem fixing
• The specific skills required by maintenance team are:
• Good product usage knowledge
• Problem solving ability
• Good debugging skills
• Ability to work with source code not written by them
• Good attitude
• Good communication skills

16. Challenges, Best practices and Pitfalls
• Whose problem is it?
• The original developer may not be available for comments or review
• Inability to reproduce the problem and lack of access to the customer
• Best Practices:
• Introducing customer supplied test cases in test suites
• Documentation standards
• Configuration management
• Effective SQA practices
• pitfalls

17. Measurements of Effectiveness in problem
resolution
• The steps of problem resolution needs to be improved are:
• Having a fully reproducible case from the customer
• Assigning responsibility to the appropriate organisation
• Choosing the right way to prioritise problems
• Time taken for the developer to provide a solution

20. Fix Distribution
• Introduction
• A High Level Overview of activities in fix distribution
• Choosing the method of distribution

21. A High level overview of activities in fix
distribution
• Choosing the method of distribution
• Fix distribution
• Preparing the shipment unit
• Testing the shipment unit
• Scheduling the fix for release

22. Choosing the method of distribution
• Methods of distribution:
-Distributing the individual fixes
-Proactive distribution of individual fixes
-Patch bundles
• For each methods of distribution, we examine the following questions
-When would this method be useful?
-What is involved in using this method?
-What are some of the drawbacks in using this method?

23. Distributing the individual fixes
• Scenarios
-Show-stopper bug
-Inability to wait for the ‘patch bundle’
-Strong business case
• How are individual fixes installed?

24. Proactive distribution of individual fixes

25. Patch bundles
• Quality
• Ease of deployment
• Simpler configuration management
-Patch order
-Interdependency
-Complexity
• Reduced overall cost
• Better chance of customer acceptance

26. Patch bundles
• Frequency of patch bundles
-When is the next product’s major version due?
-Number of bugs in the product
-Complexity of installation of the patch bundle
• Release criteria of a patch bundle
-The number of known defects in the patch bundle
-The nature of known defects in the bundle
-The bug fixes that must make it to the patch bundle
-The timeframe for releasing the patch bundle

27. Composing the fixes
• Deciding what defects are fixed in a patch bundle

28. Composing the fixes

29. Composing and merging the fixes-
configuration management

30. Preparing documentation for the bundle
• Two parts in this documentation
-Bill of materials
-Readme file
• Preparing the shipment unit

31. Testing the shipment unit
• Test process
-making available the latest product test
-Install testing
-Running tests
-Analysing test results
-Cleaning up after test runs
• Test Frequency
• Testing multiple components

33. Scheduling for release &people issues
during fix distribution

34. Challenges, best practices and pitfalls
• Challenges
Patch bundle schedules
Resource issues
Too many individual fixes
• Best practices
High impact defects list
Pre-published patch bundle schedules
Install problems checklist
Tool for identifying inter-dependence of fixes

35. Challenges, best practices and pitfalls
• Pitfalls
 Feature inclusion in patch bundles
 Separate patch bundles
• Tools for the fix distribution phase
 Installer Enhancements
Provide the same look and feel as the product’s installation software
Install with minimal questions
Perform the basic checks on the target system to ensure that the install will go through successfully
Be capable of handling multiple products or components
Facilitate replication
De-install capability in case the patch bundle has unforeseen problems
 Test results tracker
 Fix inclusion tracker

36. Measures of effectiveness in fix
distribution