Accurately Estimate Your Software Maintenance Costs

Imagine your business is implementing a software solution and is performing a cost/benefit and ROI analysis. How do you estimate the total costs of the solution which go far beyond the initial deployment? Specifically, how do you estimate the software maintenance cost? How will you be able to factor in software maturity into the overall decision? Without reliable software maintenance cost estimation, your business will be unable to accurately assess the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), and how well can you rely on the projected ROI.

Businesses frequently mistake software maintenance for “bug” fixing, however the bulk of cost issues are caused by enhancements in functionality, as the software solution evolves over time. Software evolution is extremely difficult to factor into costing estimates.

How do you control these future costs (and benefits) which will follow successful implementation of a software solution?

Software Maintenance Cost Defined

Software maintenance cost is derived from the changes made to software after it has been delivered to the end user. Software does not “wear out” but it will become less useful as it gets older, plus there WILL always be issues within the software itself.

Software maintenance costs will typically form 75% of TCO.

Software maintenance costs include:

• Corrective maintenance – costs due to modifying software to correct issues discovered after initial deployment (generally 20% of software maintenance costs)
• Adaptive maintenance – costs due to modifying a software solution to allow it to remain effective in a changing business environment (25% of software maintenance costs)
• Perfective maintenance – costs due to improving or enhancing a software solution to improve overall performance (generally 5% of software maintenance costs)
• Enhancements – costs due to continuing innovations (generally 50% or more of software maintenance costs)

How can Galorath help with software maintenance cost?

Of course the percentage of each maintenance activity is variable based on the specific system and the above allocation rules of thumb are only rough general ideas.

Galorath’s SEER project management applications provide for an accurate and intuitive tool set for estimating software maintenance costs, development costs, upgrade costs and total ownership costs. SEER’s software maintenance cost model allows companies to identify the key drivers in post-deployment software costs and combines accurate estimation with a broad knowledge base.

Why choose Galorath for software maintenance cost?

Galorath’s SEER cost, schedule, risk and reliability estimating, planning and monitoring solution is used by thousands of projects worldwide: everything from IT systems to embedded systems.

For over 25 years, SEER has been providing cutting edge analysis and includes:

• Project Cost Management Software – allows you to easily identify critical cost components and establish possible outcomes by changing parameters so you can test design/functionality/cost tradeoffs much earlier in the development cycle
• Project Planning Software – helps you understand project scope and complexity, and allows a detailed, yet “intuitive” feel for project planning and assisting with the entire software development lifecycle
• Project Tracking Software – provides superlative project monitoring and control to enable you to keep your software development on track

SEER for Software includes the following features:

• Easy to Use Interface – a quick and easy, intuitive GUI for defining your software project. New projects may be added by using pre-existing project entries and defining new or modifying existing work elements. Powered by a pop-up wizard which guides users through the process of defining project scope and complexity and identifying what resources are required.
• Simulation and Modeling Engine – leading, state-of-the-art modeling tools derived from a very wide ranging database of project histories, key metrics and behavorial models.
• Knowledge Base – provides good “first look” estimations when information is scarce, effectively provides a virtual, in-house expert for providing project parameters and estimates based on prior project histories.
• Output – a full suite of project management and executive reporting tools is provided including report writing templates, executive summaries, charts and sensitivity analysis for use at any time in the project’s development and deployment.

View SEER for Software Demo (Flash)