Software and website maintenance: what to include

Good maintenance includes six things: fixing faults, applying security updates, keeping backups that have been tested by restoring them, watching that the system keeps working, handling small changes and providing support. And, above all, it puts in writing who responds, during which hours and with how many hours of work.

What it costs depends on the size and complexity of the system and on the level of response you need, not on a universal rate.

If any of these pieces is missing, it is worth asking why before you sign.

Fixing faults

Repairing what stops working, starting with what does the most harm to the business.

Security updates

Keeping the system and its dependencies up to date. A system that is not updated is the easiest one to attack.

Tested backups

It is not enough for them to exist: someone must have checked that they can be restored.

Monitoring

Knowing that something is failing before a customer tells you: alerts, error reviews and certificates kept up to date.

Small changes

Adjustments to a text, a form or a report that do not justify a separate project.

Support

A clear way to report a problem and a person who responds, within known hours.

• The hours of ordinary support and what happens outside them.
• What counts as a critical incident and how quickly the first response is given.
• How many hours of maintenance are included each month and what happens to the ones that are not used and the ones that are exceeded.
• Who holds the access and in whose name the important accounts are.
• What it does not cover: new requirements, changes of mind and faults caused by third parties.
• Which channel is used to report and how a record is kept.

What can honestly be committed to is the time until the first response: receiving the report, classifying it and telling you what is happening and what the next step is.

How long the fix takes depends on the cause, and putting a number on it before knowing it would be making it up. Be wary of anyone who promises to resolve everything within a fixed time.

• Nobody knows when it was last updated.
• Backups exist, but nobody has ever restored one.
• Small changes take weeks to be made.
• The browser warns of security problems or an expired certificate.
• Only one person holds all the keys, and does not always answer.
• The supplier that built it no longer responds.

• If the system hardly changes and someone you trust can check it from time to time, occasional reviews are enough.
• If all it needs is to renew the hosting or the domain, you do not need an hours plan.
• If you can report a problem and wait without the business stopping, a fast response is not worth what it costs.
• If there is just one specific thing to improve, it is a project, not maintenance.

Maintaining means that what works keeps working. Evolving means that it does new things. They are handled separately because the second is estimated on its own: mixing them makes maintenance look expensive or means improvements never get done.

It is the most common case. Before committing to anything, its real state is reviewed: code, infrastructure, dependencies and access, and from that comes a list of risks and an ordered proposal.

Technology evolution

How maintenance is agreed

How much does maintaining a website or software cost?

It depends on the size of the system, its integrations, how many people use it, what it costs to have it down and the level of response you need. A price without knowing the system is not information: the reasonable thing is to review it before proposing anything.

What is the difference between maintenance and evolution?

Maintenance keeps what already works working: it fixes faults, updates and monitors. Evolution adds or changes features. They are budgeted separately, and the agreement should say what counts as one and what as the other.

Can I hire maintenance for something my current supplier did not build?

Yes, and it is the usual case. Its real state is reviewed first and what is covered is agreed. What you need to be able to obtain is the code, the accounts and the access; without them, any improvement depends on someone who is no longer there.

What is a monthly hours allowance?

A number of hours reserved each month for maintenance, support and incidents, with agreed priorities. It is worth knowing what happens to the hours that are not used and to the ones that are exceeded, and having it in writing.

Do I need maintenance if I have just received a new project?

Not immediately. The usual arrangement is a stabilisation period after delivery, in which defects in the delivered work are corrected, and afterwards a maintenance agreement or one-off support if the system changes little.

Taking over software built by another company

What to check for another team to take over software built by another company: code, accounts, infrastructure, dependencies and tests.

How much custom software costs and what drives it

What the price of custom software depends on, how to estimate it rigorously and how to compare two proposals without being sold an invented number.