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Four Reasons Maintenance Costs More
publish date: 2026/06/24 21:16:13.205878 UTC
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Which of the following are among the documented reasons that adding features during maintenance tends to be more expensive than during initial development? Select all that apply.
Correct Answer
(1) A new team has to spend time understanding the program before they can implement changes
(2) Separating maintenance from development removes the incentive to write maintainable software
(3) Maintenance work is often considered unpopular and assigned to less experienced staff
(4) As programs age, their structure tends to degrade, making them harder to understand and change
Explanation
The four reasons are: new teams need time to understand existing code; separating development and maintenance removes incentive to write maintainable code; maintenance has a poor image and is often assigned to less experienced staff; and ageing program structure degrades over time, increasing difficulty.
Reference
Software Engineering, Ian Sommerville, 10th edition