Delphi study of software maintenance problems

The Delphi technique was used to compile a list of major problems in software maintenance, quantify them, and strengthen the consensus in iterations. Forty-four experienced software maintenance professionals responded in the final round. Assembled rationales and arguments provide an abundance of information on maintenance problems, and their causes and consequences. Maintenance problems were grouped into four problem categories: maintenance management, organizational environment, personnel factors and system characteristics. Problems form the maintenance management category dominate the top of the major problems list. Relationships among problem categories and their causations were analyzed. The data show that the organizational environment influences maintenance management problems, which in turn influence problems from the personnel factors category. Personnel problems are also dependent on system characteristics