Software maintenance is the final stage in the software engineering process; and can also be the longest and most costly. The ability of, and ease in which software upkeep and change is performed is an important software quality attribute called maintainability. Software maintenance however is an expensive process in both time and financial cost and can account for a majority of a system's overall lifetime cost. It would be beneficial then to have a set of guidelines for obtaining a higher degree of maintainability in software before and after its release and evolution stage in order to limit the cost of change. Six suggested steps for achieving a higher degree of maintainability through software documentation are provided along with a short case study, followed by a discussion on potential results and future enhancements to the proposed method.
","abstract_html":"<p>Software maintenance is the final stage in the software engineering process; and can also be the longest and most costly. The ability of, and ease in which software upkeep and change is performed is an important software quality attribute called maintainability. Software maintenance however is an expensive process in both time and financial cost and can account for a majority of a system's overall lifetime cost. It would be beneficial then to have a set of guidelines for obtaining a higher degree of maintainability in software before and after its release and evolution stage in order to limit the cost of change. Six suggested steps for achieving a higher degree of maintainability through software documentation are provided along with a short case study, followed by a discussion on potential results and future enhancements to the proposed method.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Huber, Justin Roger"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Science (MS)","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Computer Science","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Hassan Reza"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2014,"date_issued":"2014-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2014-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:26:30Z","subjects":["documentation, guideline, maintainability, maintenance, reference, tactics"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://commons.und.edu/theses/1548","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Hassan Reza"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Huber, Justin Roger"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Computer Science"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science (MS)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["documentation, guideline, maintainability, maintenance, reference, tactics"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://commons.und.edu/theses/1548"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Software maintenance is the final stage in the software engineering process; and can also be the longest and most costly. The ability of, and ease in which software upkeep and change is performed is an important software quality attribute called maintainability. Software maintenance however is an expensive process in both time and financial cost and can account for a majority of a system's overall lifetime cost. It would be beneficial then to have a set of guidelines for obtaining a higher degree of maintainability in software before and after its release and evolution stage in order to limit the cost of change. Six suggested steps for achieving a higher degree of maintainability through software documentation are provided along with a short case study, followed by a discussion on potential results and future enhancements to the proposed method.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Software Documentation Guidelines For Maintainability"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Hassan Reza"],"dc:creator":["Huber, Justin Roger"],"dc:description.abstract":["Software maintenance is the final stage in the software engineering process; and can also be the longest and most costly. The ability of, and ease in which software upkeep and change is performed is an important software quality attribute called maintainability. Software maintenance however is an expensive process in both time and financial cost and can account for a majority of a system's overall lifetime cost. It would be beneficial then to have a set of guidelines for obtaining a higher degree of maintainability in software before and after its release and evolution stage in order to limit the cost of change. Six suggested steps for achieving a higher degree of maintainability through software documentation are provided along with a short case study, followed by a discussion on potential results and future enhancements to the proposed method.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://commons.und.edu/theses/1548"],"dc:subject":["documentation, guideline, maintainability, maintenance, reference, tactics"],"dc:title":["Software Documentation Guidelines For Maintainability"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Computer Science"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science (MS)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:26:30Z"}