Support and Maintenance
- Things need maintenance or they decay
- Things needs support or their use will be limited
- It is easy to underestimate support and maintenance cost
- Especially in the technology industry, it is easy to think, "I will create a thing, and then walk away from that thing, and it will continue to operate and be useful independent of anyone."
- This thinking is a fallacy
- Occasionally technologies do get a good run without maintenance, but that is the exception, not the norm, and requires both exceptional circumstances and exceptional craftsmanship
- Even with a good run, such a technology's days are numbered without maintenance
- Even if a technology can get by for a time without maintenance, without support that technology will not be used beyond the scope of its initial deployment
- Support and maintenance are two of the primary battlegrounds upon which tech companies compete
- If a tech company is not significantly investing in support and maintenance, it will fail
Timelines
- The primary cause of late projects is not starting soon enough
- Reducing the length of a project either increases its cost or reduces its quality
- Time, cost, quality—pick two
- An unrealistically short deadline results in any or all of the following:
- Delays
- Increased cost
- Reduced quality