Importance of stable velocity in agile maintenance

Abstract

Agile maintenance is the best choice if you want to keep step with your customer needs. It is a result of trying to respond to customer change requests with the high efficiency. High involvement of the customer in the maintenance process is good but also can have negative effects. Change in the behavior of the customer can influence the execution of the change management process or cause the change of the release plan, etc. All that can destabilize normal maintenance velocity and lead to a chaotic relationship with the customer, if not controlled or prevented. This paper describes problems in agile maintenance caused mostly by the change of the customer behavior at the beginning of the economic crisis. It also presents results of the analysis of these problems and recommendations how to identify them and how to prevent them.