This document provides guidance for the maintenance of software, based on the maintenance process and its activities and tasks defined in ISO/IEC/IEEE 12207:2017, 6.4.13. Moreover, this document describes the maintenance process in greater detail and establishes definitions for the various types of maintenance. This includes maintenance for multiple software products with the same maintenance resources. “Maintenance” in this document means software maintenance unless otherwise stated.


The document does not address the operation of software and the operational functions, e.g. backup, recovery, system administration, which are normally performed by those who operate the software. However, it does include the related disposal process defined in ISO/IEC/IEEE 12207:2017, 6.4.14.


This document is written primarily for managers, maintenance organizations, quality managers, users and acquirers of systems containing software.


Many of the activities and tasks discussed in this document apply equally to maintenance services, as well as to maintained software products. For example, in a COTS intensive system, maintenance services are performed to sustain the product in operations.


While the scope of this document is software maintenance, hardware and hardware costs are important considerations for maintenance.