Create a software maintenance plan for a business or for an individual computer user who does not have time for downtime. It should include all the software you rely on for daily operations (although there are some items that can be left out of the plan). This plan should be implemented as a buffer, and updates should not be directly sent to machines.

Planning the Operation

Make a list of all of your software applications and group each by usage and interdependency in a spreadsheet. You will find that it is essential to include some software applications in your maintenance plan, while many of them can be excluded. Apart from the name of the software and a brief description of what it does, one column would be taken up by dependencies. Another could show frequency of updates. Depending on the host system, these last two columns would have more or less importance. Certainly on a Linux-based system, the dependencies are very important, although to a large extent they are automatic on systems like Ubuntu.

The Main Headings

In a commercial setting, the most important software updates are as follows: operating systems, security, virus protection and production software. Production software could include software by specific vendors such as Adobe Systems, of which PhotoShop CS4, Illustrator, Acrobat, InDesign and RoboHelp would be crucial tools in a design studio. Microsoft software should be high on the list of regular updates in production. Decide whether you will get the software updates on a CD/DVD ROM or downloaded from the Internet. (With disks, you have a physical record of the update, whereas a download can easily be missed.) Sometimes there is no other way of getting an update, except via a shipped CD/DVD ROM disk. You must also keep a very close watch on license usage.

Upgrade or Downgrade?

With a software maintenance plan, just like everything else in software, you need to be sure that it works safely and doesn't impede production. So, initially, it should be tested out on a "dirty" machine to see if anything "breaks" as a result of the software updates. Most of the time this should merely be a formality, but it should be documented and recorded. If there are no problems, the new software should be rolled out to each user as fast as possible. In some commercial settings, a retrofit will be inevitable following the installation of new software, and this is another reason why a software maintenance plan must be defined down to the last detail.

Source:

FHWA, 8.4.11, Operation and Maintenance Plan Templates

NASA Software Quality Assurance Plan Template

Resource:

An ISO9000 Software Maintenance Plan Template

RCGlobal's Software Maintenance Plan Template