Patterns in Software Maintenance: Learning from Experience

Abstract

In software design, patterns—that is, structured, named descriptions of good solutions to common problems in context—have become a popular way of recording and transferring problem-solving expertise. The aim of this chapter is to describe how patterns can help in the field of software maintenance. There are two main uses of patterns in software maintenance. The first is to consider the introduction of a design pattern to an existing design. The second approach is to consider patterns for the maintenance process itself. For example, reengineering patterns describe solutions to common problems in the reengineering of a system, considering issues such as how to split the necessary changes into risk-minimizing steps. We discuss the advantages, pitfalls and practicalities of using patterns in both of these ways.