Do design records really benefit software maintenance

Recently the design record concept has been suggested for reducing software life-cycle costs. A design record is a collection of information, usually in an online repository, to support software evolution. The impact to date of design records on software maintenance is examined. Design record terminology and related work are discussed. How design records can affect maintenance and whether they have done so are also discussed. It is shown that, despite the popularity of the concept, relatively little quantitative experimental evidence exists that design records reduce maintenance costs in practice. Open issues that design record researchers should address to make design records more beneficial to software maintenance and criteria for what information should be in a design record, especially if the design record is to have a significant impact on software maintenance, are suggested