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Maintenance vs. Initial Development Cost
publish date: 2026/06/24 21:16:12.908664 UTC
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True or False: Experience has shown that it is usually more expensive to add new features to a system during maintenance than to implement the same features during initial development.
Correct Answer
True
Explanation
It is usually more expensive to add new features during maintenance than during initial development, due to factors such as the need for a new team to understand the existing system, lack of incentive to write maintainable code, the unpopularity of maintenance work, and structural degradation of ageing programs.
Reference
Software Engineering, Ian Sommerville, 10th edition