Domain Complexity in Corrective Maintenance Tasks’ Complexity: An Empirical Study in a Micro Software Company

Abstract

Corrective maintenance is very important in software engineering practice since it enables correction of problems
identified in operational use of software applications. Therefore, modeling complexity of maintenance tasks is essential
for estimation and planning activities in software organizations that spend majority of resources on maintenance
tasks. The article presents a study aimed at developing a model for maintenance task complexity by considering specific
parameters of domain complexity associated to each software application. The study was conducted in a micro
software company. The model enables analysis of trends for maintenance task complexity and correlation between
task complexity and time spent for completing tasks. Implication and benefits of the presented research for the selected
software company, for managers in software industry and researchers are discussed. The article concludes with
challenging research directions.