Software maintenance life cycle

The common view in the software field is to regard the software maintenance life cycle (SMLC) as being essentially the same as the life cycle for software development (SDLC). The examination that is presented of the nature of the actual work performed, however, does not support this common view. Even after taking into account definitional variation and situational adjustments, the two life cycles are seen actually to differ both in what stages are included and in the relative effort applied to the stages. These differences have major implications for the choice of aids and tools, and for the management of application software maintenance or support