S3M

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This article is about the software maintenance model. For the music file format, see S3M (file format).

S3M is the Software Maintenance Maturity Model is a process improvement approach that provides organizations with the essential elements of effective small software maintenance processes. The latest release of S3M — Version 2 — was released in January 2006.

S3M was created and is maintained by a team consisting of members from industry and academia and is available for download from the S3M website. As all process models, S3M should be adapted to each individual organization according to its business objectives.

The scope of the S3M model is restricted to small maintenance activities, and this process model is not appropriate for software maintenance projects of larger scope which should be managed as projects using project management techniques. For the maintenance workload requiring project management expertise and techniques, CMMi, ITIL, CMMi for services and other process models should be used.

The S3M model:

is based on the customers’ perspective;
is relevant for the maintenance of application software: a) developed and maintained in-house; b) configured and maintained in house or with a subcontractor’s help; and c) outsourced to an outside supplier;
provides references and details for each exemplary practice;
offers an improvement approach based on road maps and maintenance categories;
covers ISO 12207;
covers ISO 14764 software life cycle processes and maintenance standards;
covers ISO 90003:2004 which contains the ISO 9001 guidelines for the software industry;
covers relevant parts of CMMi;
conforms to the ISO 15504 (SPICE) international standard.

The S3M model integrates mappings to additional software maintenance practices documented in other software and quality improvement models:

ITIL Exemplary Practice for Service: Strategy, Design, Transition, Operation and Continual Improvement (ITIL v3 Core)
IT Service CMM
Corrective Maintenance Maturity Model (Cm3)
Maintainer's Education and Training Maturity Model (Cm3)
CobIT Version 4.1 (COBIT)
Malcolm-Baldrige
CAMÉLIA
Zitouni & Abran Software Maintenance Maturity Model

[edit] References

April & Abran (2008). Software Maintenance Management. New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-470-14707-5.
Pigosky T.M. (1996). Practical Software Maintenance. New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-17001-1.